Could linux breathe new life into a busted toaster laptop like mine?
This thing has trouble running anything made past like 2012 and the newer emulators out there totally bust it. I tried recently running citra and it could barely hit 30%. Would switching over to linux lighten the load on the cpu and free it up so I could run more demanding games?
Also how is linux for emulation and gaming in general?
No, unfortunately your clock speed is too slow for Citra and most modern emulators. Emulators are heavily dependent on CPU and you won't be able to overcome that with software changes. More info on required specs per emulator