Don't be scared of one of the more modern, simple Linux. I certainly understand wanting to keep the familiarity of Windows, but the beauty of the modern Linux distributions is that you can "burn" it to a flash drive and then tell the computer to boot from the flash drive. Gives you the opportunity to test drive it.
Linux Mint XFCE is about as lean as Mint comes and is very Windows-ish
In keeping Windows, strongly suggest looking at a small SSD. 128 is far more than you'll need on an internet only device. If you truly only care about internet ability, you could even go down to a 64GB and have room to spare. You'll be amazed at what a SSD does to speed up a machine with an old mechanical 5400 (assuming) HDD. Probably also a good idea to do a fresh install of Windows and not from a Compac provided Windows disc, but raw WIN7.
Linux Mint XFCE is about as lean as Mint comes and is very Windows-ish
In keeping Windows, strongly suggest looking at a small SSD. 128 is far more than you'll need on an internet only device. If you truly only care about internet ability, you could even go down to a 64GB and have room to spare. You'll be amazed at what a SSD does to speed up a machine with an old mechanical 5400 (assuming) HDD. Probably also a good idea to do a fresh install of Windows and not from a Compac provided Windows disc, but raw WIN7.