Last year, I wrote about how you can give new life to an old MacBook with Linux, specifically Elementary OS in that instance. Recently, I returned to that circa 2015 MacBook Air and discovered I had lost my login password. I downloaded the latest Elementary OS 5.1.7 Hera release and could not get the live boot to recognize my Broadcom 4360 wireless chipset.
You can restore any old laptop with functioning hardware regardless of the initial operating system. Arch Linux would be the most advisable in any case; Unless ease of use is of concern. You can run it on literally antything since all you need to install is a kernel, networking tools, etc as needed instead of bloated uselessness. I dislike installing a distro preinstalled with Libre office software and a bunch of GUI stuff. I mainly only use the terminal
You can do the same with fedora when doing custom minimal install, lots of options when it comes to older hardware. :D
*anything that is 64bit if you want to use really old 32bit hardware then you are going to have to look at another distribution or the unofficial 32bit version of arch