as someone else with a few old lappies can anyone recommend any 32 bit distros?
edit: x86 Pentium M is one of them
Mx Linux supports 32 bit architecture,
Linux Mint LMDE supports 32 bit architecture,
Puppy Linux also has 32 bit distribution. Other than those a few more Linux distributions still have their up to date 32 bit version.
Note: I've applied their official links for you so you can download it from their source domain
name. Hope, it'll be helpful.