I was looking for a distro that would allow me to get started messing around with Slackware. Just tried the x86-64 version, very fast and impressive. I then HD-installed the x-386 (32 bit) version on an old laptop with 40 Go HD, Pentium 4, 512 Mo Ram. Runs smoothly on that one too! The installer is very well done, works like a breeze while clearly explaining each and every step along the way. Posting this message from that old laptop that just escaped termination.
I'm glad you found a solution that works, and well done keeping some well-made hardware out of landfill. Laptops in that time frame tended to be corporate quality with nice keyboards even if the screens are a bit pokey and they eat electricity. Challenge: one way of learning about Slackware is to install Slackware!Just print out the guides on the install DVD (which are also available on all the mirrors) and read them first and highlight key steps. If you ran xwmconfig after installation and selected Xfce4 then it would probably run just as well as Puppy on that machine. I'm posting this from a Thinkpad X60 with Slackware 14.1, and the microlinux-desktop remix on top (kikinovak's Xfce4 desktop + multimedia packages). Runs very well on a core-duo with 1Gb RAM and a small SSD.