I have an old pentium 4 computer at home which i dont use.
Its sitting in a corner in my room collecting dust and i have no use for it.
Will it be pointless to install boinc for a pentium 4 computer ?

Seti@Home shows even some Pentium 3's running their applications. As long as you don't expect lightning fast task returns and of course depending on the speed of the P4 (the Extreme Edition is a lot faster than earlier models), it can be used. Windows XP is minimum required OS though.

And it will depend on the project whether it can run on such a CPU. You'd have to ask on the project forums if they don't show it like Seti does with their CPU list.

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Considering the op's question "Will it run BOINC"? - the answer is yes, but it will depend on the project(s) chosen. Some projects, like SETI are are very open to class of CPU, and a Pentium 4 will run quite well even if it is a bit slow.

Rob addresses a totally different question "Is it worth running it"? - that all depends on the user, how they value the energy requirements against the implied zero capital cost, against purchasing a new computer and its (possible) lower running cost, or do they just want to see the "old boy" run out its days doing something rather than gathering dust shut away in the loft.

And to prove that last point, I have one of the very early Pentium 4 computers running on my account: SETI host 4060784. It contributes a negligible amount to my overall production, but I can afford the electricity, and I keep it running for sentimental reasons: it was my mother's old computer, before she passed away a couple of years ago.

If you can afford the upkeep (electricity, monitoring the system) then every host has value... Although efficiency (work completed vs. power consumption) will not be that great. I used to run a number of hosts 24/7 when I was in an apartment with provided utilities, which included a number of misfits that I'd gotten from family and friends. Since I moved into my own home some years ago I only have one host running all the time, which is my DVR. The rest of my hosts only run when I'm using them, usually only a few hours a day, except for a few exceptions where I'm trying to get a badge or something.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats

Visit WUProp - http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results/delai.py

The sidebar is a menu and you can drill down different options. I believe that Computation Time and CPU Comparative are your best options. You should be able to get an idea on how your system stands. If nothing loads or the page is just forever loading, just refresh the page.

I tried looking up your processor but without knowing the specific model/freq it's kind of difficult. This is all from user supplied data so what you get may vary, but should be enough to at least give you an idea even if you have to do a little manual research. You can also try models near yours as the results will be similar enough.

As a rule of thumb though, I'd choose projects with longer deadlines if you're not sure and limit how much work you get, especially if you are going to do multiple projects at the same time.

~Yav