When I was a teenager, one of my jobs was to wax the wood floors of house from the 1800s used for a business. I swept them really well, lightly mopped with Murphy's Oil Soap, let it dry, then I would use a slightly damp mop again with wax, going with the wood's direction. I'd have to use ammonia about once every 3-4 months and strip off the wax build up, but overall it was a pretty easy process and you got a good workout doing it.
I have no idea how this would build up or complicate things if you're planning to refinish the floors down the road, but wood floors before polyurethane were likely finished with shellac, and then maintained with paste wax, which was stripped reapplied a few times a year (depending on heavy traffic). I would not use this if the wood floors have been refinished with modern polys, but if your floors are old, I can't see why waxing wouldn't make them look better and be easier to keep clean as well. (and if you're feeling really adventurous, you could look into a deep clean and using shellac yourself as a cheaper workaround to professional refinishing).
And from the sound of it, your floors sound like a light yellow oak (if your house was built any time around the 1940-70s, that is a likely choice). If your house is older, I'd still wager they're oak, but they might possibly be pine (but pine is usually wide planks from what I have seen).