I set it up to run LXDE + claws mail, and everything is insanely fast...
Did you install Trisquel Mini 7 as a base? If not, why not? Trisquel Mini comes with the LXDE desktop, the Leafpad text editor, Abiword (that tomlukeywood recommended), the Midori Web browser, the Pidgin instant messenger, the Evince document reader,the mplayer movie player, all common codecs, etc. For e-mails, Sylpheed is installed by default. If you prefer Claws, it is about three clicks away in the Synaptic package manager (also installed by default).
