Not a very sporting reply from BB. Could try being a bit more subtle to get a bite. Especially as the OP wants to get rid of XP.
My view for what it is worth if you cleans up XP by getting rid of bloatware / malware and restricting start up processes you could get a new lease of life from it. Better yet do a reinstall using nlite with all the fixes slipstreamed in and the bloat removed at source.
If you don't have anything on it you care about and are happy to go back to a re-image if needed then run without a virus checker as well. I would suggest host file blocking with something like mvps for a bit of lightweight protection - doubles as a very good ad blocker.
So far as Linux goes all very good advice given. Ubuntu the market leader ad easiest to install but suffering a bit from bloat itself now. Easy to do a USB stick boot or dual boot though. CentOS a more lightweight but well supported alternative. It depends how much effort you want to put into finding something optimal for you.