I know Ubuntu has a version dedicated for Netbook. Have you tried it before? You can download, then install it to a USB thumbdrive, which you can use to boot from your Netbook...

Yupe, that is also a good choice for Netbook OSes. Though Ubuntu needs some modification and optimization for some netbook brands, it is worth trying to play with it. Recently I have just removed Windows XP completely from my lappy and installed Ubuntu instead. So far everything works fine and nice. Thumbs up for Ubuntu~!