Welcome to thee forums
Most Linux are inherently stable,
your 3rd gen [2012] twin core cpu is fine for running all normal distributions 4gb is the bare minimum for a full desktop Linux [8gb would be better]
download a handful of distributions and try them live from the USB to see which works best for you and that you like best
popular builds for newbies are, Mint [my preference is the LMDE version] MX-Linux, Debian stable with codec and driver pack [as above] any of the Ubuntu family, Linux Lite, Peppermint Linux, et-al.
Your machine is old enough, it will not have windows quick-start to worry about it will be USB bootable and should have UEFI