That wasn't "light weight Linux" for 2004. Back then I would have probably been looking at Slackware or some other era appropriate minimalist distro if I wanted a minimalist Linux.

Back in 2004 USB thumb drives were realtively new, and Ubuntu would have failed fitting on any available on the market. Yet a handful of minimalist distros could (depending on if the minimalist distro had a DE or not, and the overall package goals).