I'm not convinced yet. :) Do you have a live linux cd that you can boot from. If not go to http://www.darnsmalllinux.org/ and follow the links to download. Burn the image to a CD and then boot it - DON'T INSTALL IT. You should be able to use a browser and a few other things and see if the machine will stay running outside of Windows.

Umm, the forum censor has changed the first part of the URL - instead of darn it should be d a m n - without the spaces of course