The lap-top will never handle it, though. RAM way too low.
KDE got feature envy from gnome some time ago and it has gotten fat. There are some dirtro's that have much lighter demands on memory (its actuall more a function of the x-interface than Linux itself). if youre looking for a perminate os look at Suse it has some lightweight GUI's.. I think Fedora comes with some as well. You want to look for FVWM.