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My personal opinion is that Ubuntu is the easiest to set up (or Linux Mint, but since compiling doesn't bother you I think installing some mp3 support won't be much of a hassle =D). The only thing is that it's not that light (when it comes to softwre selection). It doesn't come with a lot of crap, though; I think you'll just have to uninstall some apps you don't use =)

Try slackware :)

I've done well with CentOS and Ubuntu, and for those few Windows applications that won't run under Wine I use Sun's VirtualBox VM to run Windows as a guest OS. I have had very good results with that. Since it seems you are using Windows mostly for games, then you probably don't need much more than a basic installation and space to load your games. In my case, I use VirtualBox to run my stock/option trading software (Fidelity Active Trader Pro and Option Trader Pro) and my UML software modeling/design tool (Sparx Enterprise Architect) which only run well on a Windows system directly. Sparx does sort of work with Wine, but it has real glitches that make it unsuitable that way. The Fidelity software won't run with Wine at all. For just about everything else, I have found suitable FOSS replacements that run on Linux, such as CD/DVD ripping/burning software (K3b), office stuff (OpenOffice 3.x), software development (Eclipse + GNU), etc. So, if you are running on a typical PC or laptop, try Ubuntu (or Kubuntu). If you are running on a high-end workstation like I am (8 cores, 8GB, 4TB, dual 24" ws monitors), try CentOS. There are others that you might personally prefer, but these are rock solid. I use VirtualBox to run experimental distributions (such as Mepis, Xandros, et al) under either of these before I try a hardware installation. BTW, if you are running a recent PC/laptop/workstation, then I HIGHLY recommend you use the 64bit versions of Linux. You can still run 32bit Windows apps either with Wine or in a VirtualBox VM.

Sometimes real fast is almost as good as real time. Remember, Google is your friend!