I have an old Pentium III based motherboard lying around from an upgrade I recently did for my family. It has a 733 installed with 256 ram, a Riva TNT2, and a basic soundcard (SB I think), it came from an old Compaq 7000 series. I'd like to use it to build a Linux hobby machine. I'd like to use it as an mp3/video file server and possibly to play video files on my TV (the only real HTPC use for which I need it). The thing is, I'm a complete linux n00b. I'm wondering what flavor would be best to use for such an endeavour (considering the limited power of the system). I plan on using as large an HDD as I can afford so I'm not worried about storage, but I need to know if its feasible to use this thing for my pusposes. I know a PIII 733 will decode dvds but how stressful is DivX/Xvid decoding? I plan on installing ethernet support so it doesn't seem like there'd be any problem using it to serve files. Should I invest in an expansion card (new graphics maybe) to assist in decoding media files? Also, along with flavor reccomendations, what programs should I use? I've seen logs of people who've built Linux HTPCs and they've used MythTV I think? I'm not doing PVR or anything though, so I'm not sure if I need something like that. I just need a basic GUI by which to access and organize my files, so any GNOME or X system would work I'd think, but do i need to use something specific for my media purposes? Anyway, thanks ahead of time to those who may help. Hate has a way of closing the eyes, the ears, and the hearts of men.

Your hardware is more than adequate for your needs. I watch DVDs, DivX etc on a K6III 450, 384Mb RAM, SB PCI 128 soundcard and a TNT2. Any of the major distros would be a good choice; mandrake, suse, fedora etc. Perhaps MoviX/MoviX2 would be a good choice. It is a bootable CD like knoppix aimed at providing a multimedia workstation: http://movix.sourceforge.net/

Thanks 3Dave! I must still wait a bit before I can get going on this project of mine (because of current lack of essential hardware), but the MoviX idea sounds brilliant. I appreciate the response!