Ralph, I have to butt in here, sorry. I am running 10.4 on a G4 700 MHz iMac and it does the internet just fine with Safari (with the exception of YouTube videos. (Flash stuff)
Do not partition the hard drive except with one partition.
Insert your system 10.4 installation disk and start up holding down the "C" key. Go to the second screen pull down menu to Utilities > Disk Utility. Select your drive in the left hand column and format it MacOS extended journaled. Quit DU and continue with your system installation. Download and install all updates. Go to system preferences OS9 or classic. Insert the OS9 disk. Set the installation up from there. If your system 10 disk does not work, call Apple and get a replacement disk for $15. If Disk Utilities will not see the drive, send it back, go to Best Buy and get a PATA drive, the new ones will work just fine.