Backup workstation questions

[Massive Quasars]

I'm receiving a Dell tower with 17" LCD for petty cash. A second workstation more than anything else.

Specs:
Intel Pentium IV 2.66Ghz 533FSB
1gb RAM 533
Dell mobo from 2003/2004
nameless IDE drive

I'm looking to load Windows XP (or a stripped cousin) on it and use it mainly for office, stats, accounting, matlab type work. Am I expecting too much? I can kick the ram up to 2gb for a few bucks and that should help matlab, but what of the CPU?

Thanks.

[Massive Quasars]

Pretty responsive after a wipe and base install.

20" LCD was a nice unexpected upgrade.