IBM thinkpad boots from ubuntu CD, but does not progress to usable desktop

I have an IBM thinkpad x30 (40 GB HD, 256 RAM) that i just acquired which had WIN 2k on it. Didn't have boot disks, took it to the computer store and they wiped the drive with a program called Lysol. Downloaded X86 ubuntu iso image today, burned it using disk utility on the Mac, and was able to get my "naked" Thinkpad to boot from the Disk. I verified the integrity of the disk first, and there were no errors.
However, the computer is hanging up on the page with the brown background and not moving on to a usable desktop. The optical drive stays active for an hour straight if i let it, with no change in the status on the screen. The brown screen has three icons (windowing system, footprint-looking icon, paper and pencil), has the ubuntu logo on the right of the center rectangular box. Also getting an error window that says, "there was an error starting the GNOME settings daemon. Some things, such as themes, sounds, will not work...GNOME will try to restart the settings daemon next time you login". I saw a post where somebody had this problem, but they had insufficient RAM and had to use the alternate install disc. Can somebody help? I am quite anxious to get a usable version of linux on my little thinkpad so i can take my web design work anywhere. Thanks.