I'd say 1GB ram is not enough, since you need to allocate at least 512MB for any virtual OS you run. Better to have at least 2GB.
Anyway, Chrome OS ran very slow on VMware Player last I checked. I haven't tried any recent builds, but I doubt this would have changed.
You also have the option to put this on a pendrive, and directly boot to it.
However as celldweller1591 said, there is nothing much to see. It is just the Chrome browser but with a few additions to add OS features. If you were thinking it would be a replacement OS, it won't be. It's understandable though to want to try out something new, so if you MUST, try it on a pendrive.
Google had said on release that they will never actually have the OS available to download, but that it will only come bundled with Chrome OS netbooks. While this may change, don't wait for an official build. There are 3rd party builds available already, such as those from hexxeh, and are usually just 200MB to 600MB in size.