I sent you another private message.
Your main limitation is RAM. According to HP your computer came with a base of 512Mb RAM and may have shipped with more. Up to 2Gb RAM is the maximum you can have installed in your system. Of course, old RAM is widely available at low cost. Your computer can hold two sticks of 1Gb each. But no 64-bit system, Linux or otherwise, is going to work well with only 2GB RAM.
MX is currently the most popular freely available distribution. The 32-bit version of MX Linux requires only 1Gb RAM but works much better with 2Gb.
If you only have 512MB to 1Gb RAM then antiX is the way to go. MX Linux and antiX Linux are cooperative efforts. AntiX with 2Gb RAM runs even happier!
FWIW, I am currently running the 32-bit version of MX Linux on an old Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop with a mobile Pentium 4 processor and 2Gb RAM. It works very well. It originally only had 1Gb RAM and I was running antiX when it was in that configuration.
I also have the 32-bit version of MX Linux running on my old MSI thin client. It has an old intel Atom processor that is 64-bit rated but that Atom CPU wasn’t fully threaded like a true 64-bit CPU. It has 2Gb RAM. I tried Windows 7 and various 64-bit and 32-bit distributions of Linux. I found 32-bit MX works the best.
I have Linux Mint on my main laptop and my main desktop. They both are 64-bit systems with 8Gb RAM. They are both dual boot Linux/Windows 10 machines but I almost never use Windows any more. To me, Linux Mint is the proverbial Windows replacement.
I do not recommend Google Chrome for you. I have experience with that on a modern Acer Chromebook. It is stable and usable if you like the pad format but I find it proprietary and weird. The current version of Chrome does allow the user to install Linux apps by running a virtual Linux box. I’ve installed Libre Office, GIMP, and some other Linux “apps” on the Chromebook and they work just fine. But if the Chromebook was mine I’d just wipe it clean and replace it with Linux Mint. Regardless, Chrome will not run on your old computer. It has limited hardware support for new computers and virtually none for old computers like yours.
I’ve used antiX and also Xfce with (SUSE linux, probably) and enjoyed them both.