Using a gentoo .32 kernel is not too difficult. Refer to the wiki
http://wiki.sabayonlinux.org/index.php? ... _genkernel .
You can simplify it even more using
genkernel all
if you don't want to do any configuration.
Note, though that the gentoo kernel in my experience may recognize your disks differently, requiring some editing of grub.conf and /etc/fstab
(disks called sda or sdab may be hda or hdb [or possibly hdc or hdd] in the gentoo kernel -- possibly there is some way to fix this)
You'll need to build your video drivers if you are using nvidia or ati, and possibly to build any (other) kernel modules that you need.
Mike