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They label the x86 architecture i386 - even though it's not actually compatible with 386 processors anymore.

So when they're talking about dropping i386 - they're talking about dropping 32bit, not your 25yo sx16.

I think a few distros still support all the way back to i486. Debian and Ubuntu only support i686 though. Too bad too because i586 CPUs were on the market as recently as 2015 (Intel Quark).

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-6...

Intel Quark has some catastrophic errata which make it unable to run any stock Linux distribution. In particular, there's an issue with its implementation of the LOCK instruction prefix which can cause unpredictable crashes -- and the CPU has no microcode update facility, so there's no way to patch it.

I can't immediately find a definitive listing, but I think Vortex86 [1] chips (inheritor of the Rise/SiS x86 core) are still sold that have 586-level ISA compatibility.

[1] http://www.vortex86.com/

It's i686.