What to do with an old PC?

Well I was going to suggest you try a flavor of linux but you are already doing that, then next I was going to suggest installing a server on it.... but again you are way ahead of me. What I did with mine was install a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) server and make sure there is no GUI. You will get hands on experience with both a server and it will force you to become familiar with the terminal. Not to mention it will probably run a hell of a lot faster the windows server would. I am guessing you are rather computer savvy but if you don't know server side scripting or web design you could use this to learn. Good Luck with it though, messing around with old PCs is always fun.

It can still run as a network storage (NAS), or add another NIC and turn it into a powerful router/firewall to protect your home systems (can be used with existing router in the home - just two in series). Some of the Linux firewalls (Endian, ClearOS, Vyatta, etc...) have complete web services on them (plus Zentyal comes to mind).

The CPU should be at least a 1GHz (2Ghz preferred) if running a complex firewall/router/server software, but 256MB is just enough for the simple Linux based ones (512Mb would be lots)

On some of these, you get Snort (filtering) and Web Caching proxy, to improve your home internet access...

http://freenas.org/freenas

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Firewal...

I have (3) XP Pro PC's running all the time all connected to the web. One has for email, another is the problem solver, (look up computer issues) & the other is for surfing. This way I have a clean screen to view instead of bouncing between tabs. Makes it much easier when working on a problem. The other option is to turn it into a server.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networkin...

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Well, I would use it as a server, obviously the specs put hard limitation on it but it's still viable for a lot of things.

Also if you are into helping mankind you could also use your computer as a part of cloud computing that uses mass computer processing from computers all around the world on researches that will one day make a big difference.

I can't remember the name of the specific software but there are different fields that you can contribute your computers processing power to, like astronomy or medicine etc..

Turn it into a file server for storage. Any additional hard drives you come acroos can be added as and when you get them.

Hook it up to the internet and use it as a dedicated downloading device....for 'legal' stuff!

recycle it or sell it on ebay

Take it to the landfill.