Instead of FreeBSD for a begineer, I suggest PC-BSD, seems a heck of a lot simpler to get running and install packages. www.pcbsd.org
Or DesktopBSD - http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=31 KDE and most essential apps preconfigured. RAM is the key however with anything less than 256MB making the time investment dubious. The fastest I have ever got an old machine running with a GUI is using Puppy linux. http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1 - Well worth a play.. Dan Coe
