[LAU] Simple monitor system: which distro?

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.