moving from amd to p3?

[Doug Sutherland]

If you can wait for the network download, sure you can do a 
net install. There is a way to do this on most distros these days.
I have done it on debian, redhat, and slackware for sure. Get 
the network install boot image and let it go, it will take a long
time though.

 Tyler said.
Is there any way I can just install like debian with a really old kernel,
 like off flyppy, then use apt to upgrade?

It's not that you'd need an old kernel, just a generic one, 
basically the same bare ones that are used when doing the
initial install. But as I said in other message, if you are 
getting disk boot failure, then something else is wrong. 
A different kernel will not fix that. Check the connections
and if you can, check the BIOS drive settings. If there is
another drive in there, take it out for now and boot with 
just the new drive.

  -- Doug