Core2 install stymied on old (i686) computer...

[George Williams <gww silcom com>]

  I have an old machine which won't boot from cdrom, nor from a USB
device.
  I was able to install RH9 from a floppy, but that doesn't seem to be
supported any more.
  I have the disk space to copy all CDs onto a disk (which will not be
munched by the install process). Is there any way to boot from that?