Hi,
Since this is an older machine, you may want a older distro. The CPU and the amount of RAM are both considerations. Though many that support the Intel CPU have "386" at the end; most are actually 586 or better which means Pentium or better.
Ubuntu is free and they will send you the CD for free. I have a mchine with Win98SE highly customized on one HD and Centos2 on another HD. Just passed its service life, but freely available from
www.centos.org - The Community ENTerprise Operating System It is built from only open source on the Fedora core, so it is a great study tool for the Linux+ exam.
Cds can be ordered from
Welcome to Linux Cd.org - Best prices for your favorite distro! for a price or downloaded from
ibiblio linux archive for the archive at UNC. NCSU and GA Tech have archives near me; but many universities have archives of different sizes. The one Ibiblio seems to have more and give fewer errors.
Peace,
Clarke