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I call BS on that! What's your experience with a Pentium M? -- totally irrelevant to question at hand.

Non-PAE 32bit distros are almost completely obsolete (as is that machine) ; as mentioned, TinyCore is about all there is left. Personally, I wouldn't bother with a Pentium M, but your choice!

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1031375/pkcs-signature-error-warnings-running-dmesg-on-ubuntu-mate-18-04

https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/scanners.html#AEN21810 Other than SANE -- https://www.fossmint.com/linux-scanner-tools/

Append the kernel line at boot with "nomodeset" to circumvent the nVidia driver problem you are encountering. Here is the proprietary nVidia driver for Linux you will need to install as root without any X Windows running (i.e. in Console as @Nayr438 suggests, above) -- https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/138279/en-us

Very glad you got it figured out, @alexbianchi15! Hands-on is always the best way with GNU/Linux! You'll get there, with perseverence! Don't forget to look at PERL, too. It will prove more adalptable than others give it credit for, IMO.

Must run AHCI with Linux, as its form of RAID is in reality a fake software RAID. Maybe a sparate hard drive for for your choice of Linux distro would work more to your satisfaction. That way, one could theoretically boot one way or the other from the BIOS. I am oldschool and do not use UEFI, which complicates the matter. I know from hearing others speak of it that it is best to disable secure boot and use AHCI. I don't know your hardware. When you were at the turning point, you chose to prioritize Windows over Linux. Your choice. IME, NeoSmart's Easy BDC was the easiest way to solve dual-boot problems in the past. Must pay for it now. Didn't have to do so when I used it some time ago. (Not spam, just a suggestion). Maybe it still is the easiest way, but windows users are used to paying. I am not.

If a potential User gives info on the machine specs of his or her PC to be used, User's intended usage of Linux, User's experience base with PCs in general, and User's desires for a distro (there are many hundreds of distributions to choose from, literally), THEN maybe a reasonable recommendation can be made. To ask a question like the one posed it to, as you said, cause controversy unnecessarily -- hence, trolling. In this case, ignorance is protecting you from this. Just take note for the future. We're good.

Best for what? Impossible to answer -- like asking. "What is the best song ever" without specifying a genre or time period. Mod should have stopped this troll!

Here's your driver -- https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/78469/en-us -- 340.46 . for the 9600GT. Supported. Were you logged in as root and no X windows running when installing the driver? Must do it that way. Check out Steam.

elementaryos vs linuxlite I'd say don't expect too much out of that machine. Try Linux Lite

I was responding to @alexeygrindev1993 and not referring to you, @betatestedurm0m, at all! Perhaps Slacko 6.3.0 32bit may work.

Or a very light-weight distro without a DE, only a WM, as those suggested. @Alexeygridnev1993 -- very few Americans want to run from command line only -- too spoiled by 'convenience' -- that's one big reason we're losing our Freedom (that and lack of responsiblilty -- looking for easy answers).

Clonezilla How to Use Clonezilla Very insecure way to do this; powers that be give 'convenience' at the cost of Freedom -- your choice, consumer.

Yes you can, but I'd be surprised it ran worth a crap! Old P4s with 512MB RAM -- Slitaz, Tiny Core, Puppy, Slax, Porteus -- ALL 32bit non-PAE distros without a DE -- look at this webpage for more suggestions -- anyone who has ever run a machine such as you describe knows that even lubuntu 32bit is pushing it ! AntiX 32bit with a swapfile may work best, but you'll need help (i.e. from the antiX forum) to set it up, most likely. I'd go with either Slitaz or Tiny Core, myself! Best wishes! Let us know what you find