Ok...
I have 1 GB of RAM, and I use a 5 GB swap partition ( i think i have 2, and I am planning to buy another 512 or 1 GB strip ) but I have never even used the SWAP partition (to my knowledge) 1.5 GB should be fine for you.
If you have Windows on you disk and you don't want to uninstall, the SUSE installer (YasT2) seems to have a few issues. You should try installing SUSE 10.1 and see if thatfixes your isses. SUSE is free, (for anyone who's intrested) but that's a well-kept secret by Novell. You can download the latest version @ opensuse.com
if that doesn't help, as soon as YasT starts, choose abort to get to the non-gui "area" and choose "Start Installation."
Once YasT starts again, choose yes to enable all of the kernel modules when it probes around (the first section) and that should fix your problem. I've only had this problem the the SUSE 10.1 installer in VMware with 512 MBs of RAM, but results may be different for you, so just try enabling the kernel modules.