I have a eeePC 901 and have run K/Ubuntu 12.04 (and previous versions) and
Mint 9 without issue. I prefer KDE so use Kubuntu as default, although
Unity is growing on me. I do not like Mint with its theme and menu. That is
just personal preference. I have not tried Mate (because I never liked
GNOME 2 in the first place) nor Cinnamon on it. I do like Xubuntu and
Lubuntu if you want speed, but it sounds like you want control over the
video and for that I would suggest Ubuntu or Kubuntu (most control). KDE is
much maligned by GNOME users. They think it is slower because it takes a
bit longer to load from the desktop manager, but in my experience it is as
fast or faster than GNOME or Unity and is way more configurable.