I use SpiralLinux on my old Inspiron but it's basically just Debian with some user-friendly tweaks. I guess you could try Tiny Core or Porteus or something really small like that.
As someone who uses a fairly cheap gaming laptop with an NVIDIA GPU: I would advise against NVIDIA. I've successfully gotten mine to work, but it's been a hassle. If you can avoid it, do so.
One of my cats just got diagnosed with kidney disease. We caught it fairly early, but she's 15 years old and it feels like this might be the beginning of the end. Even 15 years feels too short. As Tamsyn Muir wrote, "Life is too short, and love is too long."
Linux Lite. Trying to pare down Ubuntu is a fool's errand, and they still use snaps.