How the hell do you have such bad hardware that doesn't support at least 1024x768 resolution? Even Windows 98 supported that.
I have it on purpose, so that everything runs as smoothly as possible. I don't really care about fancy stuff. In fact, I hate Windows Aero and its competitors; it looks ugly and slows everything down for the sake of a nicer interface.
90'S WIND0ZE PWNS KTHXBAI
Linux can be far, far lighter than Windows if you want. You don't even need graphics.
For example, Lynx Web Browser: