Could I use some sort of linux?

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I have a very old Acer TravelMate 2420 (must be 4 or 5 years old now).
It's a Pentium M 1.7ghz, 512 ram, built in wifi

I have xp sp3 on it and its pretty sluggish at times. I use it for sofa usage:
browsing
youtube
msn messenger

Do you link some sort of linux option would be 'faster'? And still be able to run these programs (msn messenger might be a dealbreaker....)

Also, I've never used linux before...

Stick to xp?

 

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Msn might not be too much of a sticking issue as I could use skype, hopefully thats more linux friendly?