newbies linux adventure

[robert jorgenson]

okay i had an old p1 133 mhz computer and i couldn't get linux installed on it for some reason(hardware related) and EBo was gonna help me out with it but something unfortunate happened to that box :( My friend 
hooked me up with another box it also has a p1 133 mhz and i dont know what board it has, but i cant get linux installed on this either, most of the hardware is same as old one(HDD, ram, floppy, cdrom, NIC, sound, 
video etc...). So my question is does anyone know where i can get some old hardware that will work in this box that will work with linux, i am pretty sure it has something to do with either the HD or the video card. okay i 
just remembered this one utility that inventorys your pc and tells you everything so i will list the important stuff. 

main circuit board: BIOS: Award Software 4.50PG 09/07/95
video: S3 Trio32/64 PCI (732/764) [Display adapter]
HDD: Generic IDE hard disk drive (2.15 GB) -- drive 0 - i happen to remeber this being a fujitsu but i cant remember which model

if anyone knows why those wouldn't work or where i can get stuff to replace them(cheaply if possible) i would appreciate it. BTW so far i have tried to install SuSE, mandrake, and zipslack and bigslack

                                                                                                                                                                                             -thanx