Recommendations for an "Instant On" Linux

I've got a project I'm working on where I'm going to take a thin client (EPIA C3 @ 800MHz, 512MB RAM) and turn it into a video game machine for my living room.

Ideally, what I'm going to do is throw some scripts together that will auto-load zSNES upon boot.

So, I need some recommendations for a Linux distro that can boot instant-on (or nearly) and will give me access to full VGA (640x480), my USB gamepads, and the standard on-board Realtek audio.

If possible, I'd like a recommendation for something like ControlMK for Linux so I can navigate the GUI with the gamepad.

Best instant-on Linux would be LinuxBIOS. Check out Youtube for some action shots. It's like 2 seconds to a working terminal or something along those lines.

Pretty much any distro that supports ACPI and AND suspend-to-RAM (Sleep Mode), which should give you that "instant on" experience. A lot of electronics simply fall into a Sleep mode or Standby when turned "off", especially those found in your living room e.g. DVD/BD players, receivers, televisions. The LinuxBIOS sounds ideal, but AFAIK ASUS is pretty much the only company offering a board with such capability and judging that you're already repurposing an older computer as a thin client, you needn't such a device.

Test a few of those distros that support those technologies. I cannot stress this enough; your experience WILL vary depending on the type of hardware you use. If you can find a distribution that will allow you to sleep/resume with success (especially from and to the GUI) then stick with that one. Even different versions of the same distro can behave differently (For example my laptop could "sleep" in Slackware 11, but not in Slackware 12.0 , despite many kernel recompilations).

My final note is to make sure you don't have any offending hardware that will keep you from suspending. ATI cards and certain wireless cards (intel IME) are the usual suspects although most of the time a script or two could alleviate those problems.

I'm sorry that I can't help you with the controllers and software. It may help to provide what brand of controller or gamepads you use.

EDIT: DUNST! Did a little research on LinuxBIOS; it seems that it is now referred to as "coreboot" and does support quite a few motherboards real well. However, I don't see the OP's motherboard and chipset on the list. IMO stick with looking for a distro with ACPI support.