what flavor to use for this hardware

[cainchild]

My wifes machine is a 32bit amd duron 2800/(kt800?) with 512 megs and a geoforce 6200x256 . The NVIDIA drivers in 10.10 don't seem to like her machine 173 & 260.19.12 I think.
I am also noticing alot of threads pertaining to NVIDIA issue with 10.10. I can get a couple of other distros up and going just fine, but still want to let her try ubuntu. To avoid having to go through revision by revision, can anyone tell me what revision of 9 or ten will have the new app manager and work on that vid card. After countless years away from Linux and Ubuntu I'm actually really excited after seeing the screens on the main page.

Below are the lesser distros that went well. Don't know if this would help narrow down a kernel or something.
PCLinxOS 2010.1
Mint 9 (the 10 CR wouldn't go past 640-480, same issue)
Puppy
Last years debian didn't work as I recall.
..Im so tired of downloading now. Please help me out.
p.s. Super Kudos on the package managers and audio volume control for gnome.

[linux.is.skynet]

I haven't had any trouble with 10.10 when it comes with Nvidia. Maybe you could try 10.04 or 9.04?

[cainchild]

Do both of those have that tasty looking application mangler?
Remember this is for my wife, easy is NOT broken, it's essential.

[mörgæs]

9.04 has reached end of life, so focus on 10.04 as a first step.

There are only minor differences between 10.04 and 10.10 regarding the looks.