General :: Best Distro For Old Crappy Laptop? (HP Pavilion Zt1130)

I got a laptop for free. It's an old POS, but it was free, and it basically works for pretty much what I am going to use it for. Web Browsing, Cloud Computing type stuff.NOTE: I am an extreme Google Whore. To paraphrase Jay-Z: Google Mail, Google Docs, all Google Everything. lol. when considering my question, please keep this in mind.anyhow, this is what I am working with:

HP Pavilion zt1130
Windows XP SP3
Intel Celeron Processor 1133MHz
684MB RAM
S3 Graphics Twister 16MB
20GB Hard Drive
DirectX 9.0c
Linksys Wireless-G Network Adapter

as I mentioned above, I use Google Stuff for my primary computing Needs. GMail, Google Docs for Office stuff, Reader for RSS, etc. with Google Gears to make these apps usable offline. I also use LastFM, Twitter, etc. My preferred browser is Chrome, but I can settle for Firefox if necessary. I am trying to figure out if getting off of Windows XP, and switching to Linux might help with boosting the performance of this old, crappy machine(does the OS even matter in regards to this?), and maybe push it more towards being more of a Cloud Computing machine. and which Distro would probably be best for me and my computer.

I know absolutely nothing about Linux beyond common, basic stuff. So anything that requires some complex set up is not what I am looking for. I'd also need a decently easy to use GUI. But I am unsure about hardware compatibility and things like that. I don't wanna wipe my HD, and break the computer trying to install Linux,