[LAU] Simple monitor system: which distro?

[Andrew Bryant]

I want to build a system that monitors several audio signals.  It will 
need to run:

alsa
jackd
meterbridge (3 stereo pairs)
alsaplayer
silentjack (3 instances)

There will be three soundcards.

Synchronicity and realtime are not important.  Long-term stability (i.e. 
running 24/7) is.

Silentjack will need to run scripts that send emails in the event of 
prog failures

It will need to boot into a script that starts all the above.
It will not need a desktop - a straightforward windowmanager like fvwm 
is sufficient.

It would be nice if it ran on elderly hardware - a PIII/733 with 512MB 
is available.

I am expecting to modify meterbridge, so the existence of a binary 
package is not important for that application.  The others, however, 
will be standard.

Any thoughts which distribution would be the best starting point?

Andrew.