Just installed Bunsenlabs Helium (successor to Debian-based Crunchbang) on an old Lenovo S10 netbook with success. All worked out of the box, including the troublesome Broadcom wifi drivers. Snappier than it ever was with Windows XP... (If snappy can apply to a netbook.)

https://www.bunsenlabs.org/

Openbox on Debian is pretty lightweight. I have not tested my n270 netbook in a while with these new browsers though. They suck up the revs < revolutions >.

Throwing this in as a honorable mention for the openbox lovers.

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=47910

I can't swear if it is 32 bit i686 iso or not. I have not read all the pages.

I have not yet tried this, .

https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix...AQ/frugal.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZGTBUW3bnA

antiX v19.2.1 32 bit is running fine on my Acer Aspire One AOA150 8.9"(1.0GB RAM, 1.66 GHz Atom CPU, 160 GB HDD). This netbook is not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination but does basic stuff like email, write letters and word processing (libreOffice installed), surf internet with Firefox & most youtube. The achilles heel is the old Atom CPU which red lines long before the RAM usage maxes out. No sense wasting extra RAM or a SSD on this old thing.

I also had a ZG5. I installed MX on it then gave it away.
If I have to redo, I will use antiX, base version, replace Firefox with Palemoon, add strictly what I need and remove whatever I don't.

Currently running AVL-MXE-2020.12.03-openbox-i386, with the following specs
excerpted from inxi
Some services could be excluded from start-up, which would lower RAM usage.
IMO, this distro performs comparably to antiX, being perhaps negligibly
slower. I was impressed and am just passing it on, it being very recent,
and of possible interest to OP.

I have several Acer Aspire One netbooks both 8.9” & 10.1” models.

You need 2 GB RAM to run a full fledged interactive browser like Firefox and not die of old age waiting for a webpage to render.

But the real kink in the hose is the tired old 1.6 GHz ATOM CPU which red lines out long before the RAM is used up.

I don’t like the anemic webpage renderings of the watered down sub-browsers so if a computer won’t run the full Firefox it’s time it took its place on the curb on garbage day.

^ I wouldn't throw it away.
I could still see a few good uses for it, even if the browser is next to unusable (and btw disabling javascript helps). Ask rokytnji.
Mine used to have great battery life, and a 3G SIM card slot for internet.

Moore's law is both a blessing and a curse.
The old XP days running with 128 MB RAM on a P3 32 bit clunker with IDE (PATA) "plumbing" are over.
A modern web browser rendering a busy modern webpage in a reasonable time takes at least a 1.5 GHz dual core CPU and 2 GB RAM (preferably 4 GB).
Some bleached out webpage rendering with the stutters isn't my idea of browsing.

Web browsing isn't the only way to make use of a computer.

Before my outdated netbooks hit the scrap heap. There are many ways I can turn them into jukeboxes.

mocp
mc
wget
alsa
terminal
a soundjack to twin stereo jacks for external amp. https://www.walmart.com/ip/onn-3-5mm...Feet/829969025
Old analog stereo out of pawn shop or good will. https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/112321938
I've made old speaker towers out of old car 6 x 9 speakers. About 5 in a vertical row. You tube has videos.

Any distro of your choice . On really old gear. Even this will work https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=womp < I ignore discontinued on home made appliances >. That iso is backed up on my external drives at the motorcycle shop.



For the Slackware Mention. I took the Lazy way out and used Salix Fluxbox and Slackel Fluxbox linux on mine as a self teaching process. Kernels were nice enough to give me everything working. I needed no missing firmware. Ram usage was a bit more than AntiX . Package management was pretty binary also for those that care. Both distros had tons of options for pkg management.
They are good netbook isos also.

I practically WORE out that zg5 before giving to my father in law running all kinds of Puppy linux distros on it also. The free for all atmosphere at murga forums used to make me grin every day.

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i TOO have a Dell netbook from *2012* i think? it runs with 1 gig of memory with an atom cpu and win-xp when my wife got it. i searched online and it said 2GB max on memory, but you have to rip and tear to install more mem. sealed up case made in china i'm assuming. sodimm memory if i'm not mistaken. i might revive it and give it to the grandson for zoom/school. cheaply.

Another 32bit O/S that may be a good fit for old netbooks - Raspberry Desktop for PC.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/software...rry-pi-desktop

Have found PuppyBionic to run great on a UMPC with 512mb of RAM and essentially a Pentium III processor. You can try it live on your netbook, can almost guarantee it run incredibly well with a gig or more

I have an old Acer Aspire 1 netbook with an Intel Atom 1.6 GhZ processor. I uses it pretty lightly, but her current Windows installation is slower then a turtle.