Ubuntu 7.04 takes hours to load and installation is literally impossible on Dell Inspiron 5100

I am looking into learning unix, and im very picky about graphical interfaces. so i found Ubuntu which seems to be one of the best out there. I chose ubuntu out of all the rest because its a) known, b) has GNOME and has a kickass desktop view which i like the most and c) supposed easy partitioner and and easy to use installer. now, the CD loads except when it reaches the graphical interface, the whole system takes hours to load. for the desktop to load from the period you see the graphical interface is about 10-15 minutes. so, when i click on the install button (or run it manually through the terminal) i left it loading and went out to a restaurant.. when i came back only half of the languages showed, and basically half of the install page was loaded. so it goes soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow.. i wonder why.. maybe some boot commands i could try? and i dont understand that boot options.. how do i insert them? it says "Boot Options .casper" something like that its wierd.. anyway.. maybe if ubuntu does not work, any other system i could try to run dual-booted with XP that has an elegant graphical interface? no KDE please, i hate kde.. i tried Xandros which is crap and ugly, Slax i use for rescue missions haha, but ubuntu really atracted me. my system is an old insprion 5100, runnign a 2.6 GHz P4, 256MB RAM, ATI graphics card.... its pretty good. XP runs swell on it. AND if all doesnt work, maybe some way to install ubuntu over a network? (yes, ethernet card.. not PLIP)?? id appreciate any of my questions ansdwered.