Installing Linux on an old 486 compaq laptop

[Marie-Thérèse Lorentzen <mtlorentzen get2net dk>]

Hi!
A friend's 16 year-old would like to put his old 486 Compaq laptop (with
only has 80 MB on it's hard drive, no CD-ROM and 4MB RAM) back into use
again. He's never tried Linux and would like to try it on the laptop.
Has anyone had any luck installing Linux on an older Compaq laptop? Does
anyone have any suggestions as to which version Linux he should use?
Where can it be found? Any ideas as to what kind of problems he could
run into?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!