I just installed modern Linux: Debian 14 "Forky" (kernel compiled yesterday), from the ground up on an:
Apple iBook G4/1.33 14" 1.25GB RAM (2004).
Wow, this is really fast and cool 😎
Sadly there is no modern Linux driver for its GPU. 2D only. Its GPU is a Radeon R200 series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_R200_series support for which was removed from Mesa a few years back. https://docs.mesa3d.org/amber.html
Kernel mode setting is supported for this GPU https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Graphics_processing_unit#AMD so I guess a 2D-only Wayland compositor would work, but stuff like Kwin that uses OpenGL will be using (very very slow) software rendering (if it works at all).
As you can see from that mesa3d.org link, there is a Mesa branch called `amber` where the GPU driver for the R200 lives on. I don't believe Debian ships it, though. You'd have to build and install it from source, perhaps by modifying the Mesa package, but I wouldn't know how to do that.
I got one for EUR 56 last year.
It's now running MacOS 9.2.2.