Can I install Windows 8 on a intel Atom?

Solution
You can.

There are Win8 tablets for sale at the moment with 32GB storage and just 1GB RAM.

Your old n450 is going to be extremely slow, but it will work as long as you're prepared to be patient.
If anything, Windows 8 is a little trimmed-down from Win7, it should actually run a little better if anything. It should certainly boot faster.

Exactly "how slow"... I'm not sure how to answer that. But if you can cope with that netbook on Windows 7, Windows8 shouldn't be any worse.