Older chips like the core 2 duo (or quad) that don't have the management Engine are still useful for web surfing but Windows and Apple are part of PRISM so go with Linux or BSD. I'm not sure I trust Linux so much now that most distro's use systemd (probably just paranoia on my part). No matter what hardware or software you use, you have to assume your being watched by our gov't and/or others, so behave accordingly.