Trying to revive the Sony VAIO PCG-N505VX

So it's March 2012 and I'm trying to revive my Sony VAIO PCG-N505VX.  This is the 2nd iteration of the famous Sony VAIO 505TX that turned laptops into a fashion statement.  The N505VX was featured as a fashion accessory in ads and was small enough to fit into a purse.  Why you ask do I even care?  Sentimental reasons.  It's still the thinest and lightest notebook I own and it still runs.

Resources:

• http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_sony.html - Provides a comprehensive list of Sony VAIO 505 enthusiast information.  However, it's mostly in Japanese.  Use translate.google.com to read the page in english.

Today, it's old and it's slow.  I managed to upgrade the harddrive to the 40GB variety, but haven't made much headway into getting a more modern operating system that would work, that is short of going back to Windows XP SP3.  Windows 7 won't install because it has a minimum of 512MB RAM limitation, unless I modify the Windows 7 boot disk to ignore that minimum RAM requirement.  I've tried Ubuntu, but the Gnome interface is too heavy for the 128MB RAM and Pentium II 333MHz processor.  Xubutu and LXDE is better, but once you load up an application, it's all over.