memory issues with small Linux

The only PC's I have that can boot from their CD drives have only 32 MB of RAM. I've tried booting Ubuntu Live, Knoppix and, more recently, Hikarunix (which I think is basically Knoppix with some Go software) without success. They present slightly different problems but I think that they are all due to insufficient memory. One of the machines, in particular, has UMBC RedHat 7.3 installed on it (the other has an earlier version of RedHat, 6.2 or so) and about 189 MB of swap space. I'm told that is insufficient and that might be what causes the panel not to install itself correctly when Gnome starts. Anyway, I manage with that much swap space pretty well most of the time. I'm told that when you boot one of these live linuxes, the HD is read only and everything is done with the CD and with memory. If so, that means that these small linuxes can't use the swap space that makes it possible for much bigger linuxes to run on my machine.

I'm just wondering whether I'm right in these speculations and whether there is any way to boot one of these live linuxes in such a way that it does take advantage of the swap space. -- Ignorantly, * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.