Backing Up To Another PC

[#1]

I have 2 PCs networked to each other via Cat5 cable.
My everyday machine runs XP Pro SP3 with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD.
My old machine runs 98SE with 384MB of RAM and a 20GB HDD.
The old machine is nearly ten years old, and I'm sort-of thinking of wiping it and installing a lightweight Linux distro on it instead. I don't want to lose the current configuration, though, as it incorporates all the 98SE updates and hotfixes.
Before I go any further, is it possible to take an image of that disk and save it to my XP rig (or burn it to CDs/DVDs from there - the old machine doesn't have a DVD drive)?
If so, how should I go about it and what software do I need (preferably freeware)?
TIA

[#2]

Easier to just buy another hard disk for it? 

[#3]

I bet they don't make disks as small as 20GB any more.

[#4]

Quote

If so, how should I go about it and what software do I need (preferably freeware)?

Take a look at Clonezilla http://www.clonezilla.org/ that will allow you to make an image backup over the network.

[#5]

I bet there's any number of PCs with disks around that size taken to your local dump!

[#6]

I use the linux bootable "system rescue cd" to do all my image copies, you can download it from www.sysresccd.org.
But if this were my PC, I would try to get a cheap / free secondhand hard disk and simply swap out the old one in case I ever needed to use 98.
If you are planning to use the Ubuntu distro, be aware that version 9.04 will be ok, but 10.x onwards needs a minimum of 512MB of RAM.  
If you can get hold of a free old / dumped PC, you could probably get enough bits to upgrade RAM too.

[#7]

You need 512MB to try the live disk, but it's possible (just) to install the full distribution on a 384MB, 600MHz desktop.
Performance isn't so good though.
Using one of a lightweight Window Manager - or one of the smaller Ubuntu based distros might give you a faster machine though.