Please recomment a fast linux that can run on older (p2/p3 256m ram) hardware. I'd love to move my webserver over to a linux box. But ever time I've tried linux it was just to damn slow to be useable.
Any Linux can, what's probably slowing it down is the desktop (Gnome, KDE, etc.), which can be too slow for an older system. If we're talking webservers, running a quick Slackware/Gentoo install WITHOUT X or any graphical system and running the system from the terminal would probably be the best option.
If you want/need a desktop, try a lighter-weight one like IceWM.
Not sure what you are doing but I have clients that are running webservers on 486's with 64 megs of ram and the speed is just fine. One problem I have noticed over the years that may also apply to you, is the video card.
Some cards will make Linux run very slow if you are using Xwindows. Try replacing the video card with one of those cheap 32 meg pci cards. You can always return the card if it doesn't work.
Also for you MIS people out there you might want to look into Linux/VMware. Using this combo you can install most OS's on a Linux server base, including server OS's, and use them remotely from a cheap desktop or the internet(vncserver+fairly good connection)
The other upside to this is that if an OS fails, if you are doing the proper linux file backups, it can be reinstalled and up and running in 30 minutes or less.
On my slower PII, with less than 200mb of ram, I use XUbuntu.
You should be able to use standard Ubuntu on a PIII with 256mb of ram just fine.
Ive also used Puppy Linux which is bare bones and very fast on old machines.
Oh, that's easy. I wrote a tutorial on the subject years ago.
How much traffic does the web server get and are you running any thing else on it (like a database)..
Because Unix/Linux was designed to run on high powered scientific equipment. Windows was designed to run on the original "desktop computers", or low low horsepower.