Garage sale pc

We bought a garage sale PC with 98 on it.  Problems with it is that it 
seems to lock up a bit.  I guess I've gotten used to the stability of 2000 
and XP (granted any rabid anti MS person will think that's an oxymoron). 
Another problem is that my wife would feel better using it than my work 
one.  But she uses Excel alot to do books for her mom (who uses some 
version of Windows) and a friends ceramics shop.

Kids want to play games on it.

I had a local downtown business do some work, like swap out a CD drive for 
a DVD drive.  This business caters to home users.  Pretty low key but did 
nice work in the past.

I'm thinking of:
- having the local business "reload" the computer with 98 to get all the 
crap that the previous owner had on it off.  Then I'd still have to get an 
office suite.
- erasing the disk and loading linux on it.  And some open office stuff.
- Getting a new PC with the latest version of windows for the home user, 
and an office suite.

The thought process is -not- to use this as a learning machine for me to 
learn linux.

What do you think?

Rob Berendt