Ubuntu on old machine

[Doug Pollard]

Hi all, 
    I have something I want to try later Probably in the spring and am 
looking for a couple of opinions.  I would like to put EMC  on an old 
computer I have. Right now I am busy with doing video and trying to get 
some knowhow with the terminal.  This whole thing is now in the thinking 
about stage.   I have a little shop with a lathe and milling machine 
that would be fun to run as CNC on Emc.
    The box is a  E-machine  266 MHZ   and 250  megabits of Random 
access memory. It has a 4o gig and 60 gig hard drives.  It will boot 
from cd.   Will Ubuntu 8.04  install and run on such a machine?  Would I 
be better off to try something like Xubuntu or Puppy Linux.  The machine 
will be totally dedicated  to EMC.  All other Ubuntu work will be done 
on the machine I am presently using.
    I am also keeping my eyes open for a free or really cheap box with a 
little more oomff  :-)  the question may be mute.
                                        Thanks for any advice,     Doug