installing linux on an old coputer

[honolulu]

hello people, i hope you can give me some good tips what
to do with my favorite computer system...
i want to install a linux
but i don't know which distribution should i take
because my computer ins't a pentium m or athlon 64

i would like to use the following apps:
1. Firefox
2. Sun Java J2SE 5.0
3. emacs
4. some dvd player (do you know one)
5. some mp3 player (i think you can't play mp3 under linux is it true?)

my computer is a pentium III 600 mhz, 128 Mb ram (I'm thinking of upgrading to 384 Mb),
cd rom + dvd rom, RIVA TNT2 grafic card with 16 mb ram(is it enough for playing dvds???)

hmm, what do you think?

[lxnay]

Yes everything is in RR4, you only need at least 256Mb of RAM (to do all these things).
You can download RR4 3.0b0 or just wait for the next releases.

[RedShirt]

You can use most distros still, only a few require a high grade processor. So long as you have mmx you should be fine for most distros I know of. Your ram is the more limiting factor, as most want/need 256+ now.

Specifically:
1) 1.5 or 1.5.0.1 depending on 3.0b0 or 3.0b1(3.0b0 only for rr4)
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) mplayer is what I use, probably the best, but RR comes with a few other options too. Kaffeine, Totem, others.
5) Amarok is what I use, Beep and xmms are other options.

According to most DVD drive manufacturers, a 32mb card is recommended, but I recall years ago my first dvd player had an 8mb requirement with 16 recommended, so that may be more up to the drive than the software. I know know 32mb is recommended, but that is also with modern dvd drives...