I have one really old computer that I use at home. This is a Celeron 566 with 319Mb of RAM and 10Gb hard drive. Someone just threw this box to the out, and I picked it up, because I'm sure that it still can do a good service. After playing with is I have installed a Linux distribution on it called IceBuntu. This is based on Ubuntu 7.10 with IceWM window manager, but the project is almost dead. Because of the condition of this project I decided to move on to another lite distribution. My first preference in choice still was Ubuntu, as I knew this system better then others. So, I tried a few candidates on my VirtualBox and here are the results:

CrunchBang lite

• larger file
• straitforward and fast installation
• moderate to fast startup (ubuntu)
• good menu
• good settings
• youtube works ok
• feels a little slow
• shutdown option is hidden behind menu "exit"

AntiX lite

• smaller file
• messy but understandable after reading F1 on startup screen of CD
• should read docs before starting live cd
• impression of slowness on livecd
• clear shutdown and restart buttons
• no splash during startup
• cannot login, giving up, too many problems.

Puppy 4.1.2 k2.6.25-16

• Very small file
• textual setup
• after selecting xorg and waiting for over 5min on black screen, almost gave up
• after several options was able to run livecd
• nice tools and speed
• youtube is a bit slow, slower then others
• installation is advanced
• after installing on hd hangs during start (probably xorg).

eeebuntu base

• largest of all file
• a bit slow livecd
• installer of Ubuntu simular to CrunchBang
• not fast, actually even slow

Debian netinstall 

• smallest file

• fastest download
• choice of text/graphic install (I tried graphical automatic with LXDE)
• has advanced or automatic installation
• very long installation comparing to others
• requires some post installation setup (can be done with script e.g. http://debian.cante.net/stem/)
• youtube is very slow, maybe because debian took the highest possible resolution by default, otherwise one of the best performers

Summary

I also tried U-Lite , and was able to run it with the slight modification of the installation script which was designed for Ubuntu 8.04 even though the current version is Ubuntu 8.10. I liked the results on VirtualBox but I think that the most comfortable and fast out of those listed here would be CrunchBang Linux.