I wouldn't put yourself through DSL or PuppyLinux...Linux is as slow as you make it, really. Download an Arch image and read through the wiki for help setting it up. Arch is good as a minimal distro, because you're in control of what gets installed while the process isn't very complicated and time consuming...like Gentoo.
<Aoi-chan> everyone's first vi session. ^C^C^X^X^X^XquitqQ!qdammit[esc]qwertyuiopasdfghjkl;:xwhat