Okay, long ago I installed Slackware 8 (or was it 9?) on my old IBM 385XD.  
Since it only topped at 96Mb of memory, small mattered.

I don't advise Slackware cos it does little, if any, detection work.  
Mandrake's way better for that.

When I last looked, wireless tended to be very poorly handled; has this been 
any improved in the last two years?