I'm really inclined towards Windows Vista for this build, however I feel like 7 is a safer choice, but I'm really not sure which OS could be fast on this rig which can still be used properly in 2024 I made it for XP in mind (with 4g ram) however I feel like I could use this as a lightweight daily driver too, take prints, send emails, surf a little, etc. Would Vista work or would I get tons of compatibility issues?
Just go with Win10, on a SSD and 8GB RAM it should run just fine. (and if you got a good board, overclock the living s**t out of that E8500)
or better yet Win10 IoT LTSC 2021 I have LTSC 2021 on a Dell 2007 laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7600 cpu & working great try LTSC 2021 on that Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 desktop cpu
If you want a fast and easy OS to service, go for Win7 with simplix updates. Win8.0 with ex7forw8 is also very good for old devices if you are feeling brave. Expect some compatibility issues with modern browsers if you are not running win10. Windows 8.1 and above is too new for your CPU/GPU and you will notice slowdowns so I would avoid it. There's always the penguin route... the things you mentioned are very well supported under Linux. Any decent distro that runs XFCE would fly on those specs and still be friendly to use. This would be my choice for sure