Problem with omnibook XE3

Ok first off I know this notebook is really old. My dad has had it in storage and I was inspired today to try and make something out of it. My questions are:
1. If I use some distro of linux is there any hope of me getting wifi working on it.
2. What would cause the monitor to just randomly turn off.

#2 is the biggie. Its like the computer is trying to go to sleep but it WILL NOT wake back up. When this happenes if i have it plugged up to an external monitor it will lose its feed and no ammount of hotkey pressing will bring it back. It has done this when I have left it alone to run scandisk. It has done this when trying to launch a linux live CD. It has even done this when windows 98 is trying to boot. I don't want to sink much money into this because I plan on getting a new notebook over christmas and this is just to tide me over. The computer still appears to be running its just the monitor that isn't working because when I use the power switch to turn it off and restart it it goes into scandisk meanin that windows wasn't shutdown properly. The conclusion I draw is that windows is still running and hasn't crashed.

 

For No1, if you have Linux compatible Wireless Drivers, it should work.

 

thats good to know but I think I'm going to have to scrap my little project simply because the screen keeps turning off. I talked to a tech support person and they said that it sounded like a bad power inverter and that it would be 150$ to fix. I am not willing to sink that kind of money into it.