Comment 2 for bug 1069549

"This kernel does not support a non-PAE CPU."
Ubuntu dropped support for non-PAE CPUs with 12.10.
They suggest to use 12.04 on such hardware.
It is possible to use a 12.04 kernel on a 12.10 system or to compile your own kernel without PEA support.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingPAE

IMHO a better solution would have been to add a new linux-generic-nonpae package to the main repository.
Now someone needs to set up a PPA...

On my very old Pentium-III-500MHz PAE is supported, but on my much newer Pentium-M-1.8GHz it is not!