Arch would be a nice choice for your description - the base install comes with a minimal selection of software, so you can easily add what you want without there being any bloat. However it doesn't come with a graphical installer. A derived distro like Antegos with a graphical installer might be a good choice otherwise.

But, as always, this sort of thing is highly subjective, and there is no 'best solution'. My recommendation would be to try out a few different ones and see which one you like. Even a distro generally labelled on the heavyweight side will run perfectly on old hardware, especially if you install their 'minimal' or 'server' option (and add the software you want on top).

Remember, that apart from the package management system and some underlying system choices, most distros are fairly similar to use on the surface (unless you plan on using it as a server - then you'll find large differences between ubuntu based and redhat/fedora based distros).

Having said that, if you install a desktop distro like ubuntu it can be difficult to switch DE's since the configuration is integrated so much.