I’ve got 2 gigs of RAM so I’m good there.
“Any problems you encounter will be related to something else. Probably video-card support.”
And I have that beat- the monster machine doesn’t use a video card.
Then go with the PCLinuxOS KDE 64-bit version. Should go just fine. Select the "Live CD" option at boot. Will load the system into RAM, then you can verify it will work with all your hardware. On the desktop, you'll see an "Install" icon. Click on that when you're ready to go.
My new machine doesnt have a DVD burner so I download the software on a flash drive and then move it to the HP and burn an image on a DVD.
Can't you just download directly to your HP?