Running Knoppix does seem to run the basic OS on the most PCs that I've tried. I've just started with Knoppix, so will take a while to get used to it, but seems to take more terminal code than GUI than some others that I've tried. Not sure if this is good or bad, if the code is concise.

Knoppix 6.7 seems to run the same on my Windows 7 laptop, XP desktop and an old windows something box that I have that can't read a USB, but Knoppix CD runs - impressive.