Taking my old PC out of storage and installing Linux...

Distro recommendations. Go!

May need more information than that. Vet or first timer?

Bit of a first timer. But willing to get dirty if needed.

Ubuntu

I did the same (except "storage" for me was my laptop being bounced around family for the past 10 years...) and installed Debian but with LXDE to try it out but also since its wonderfully light on resources! I did cheat and throw in a solid state drive though... 60 gig but I can use the machine happily as a backup now :)

As far as Ubuntu goes, I much prefer Xubuntu, has the lightweight XFCE windows manager.

Why not try? I personally like ubuntu on the server (fresh software) but prefer fedora as desktop

Fedora.

Mint