nother kinda downside is your hard drive space. 3.1 GB won't get you very far these days . A minimal bare-bones command line only install of RedHat 9 is around 300-400 MB. Expect more like 600-800 MB for functional X support. A FULL install is something like 4 GB.
RH is extremely space hungry to start with. That's what you get when you use a distro like RH or Mandrake.

If I were you I would use a minimalist distro like Arch Linux. http://www.archlinux.org

Be warned, Arch Linux will require some Linux knowledge; it doesn't hold your hand like RH and Mandrake. If you read some online docs you should be able to figure it out.