Indeed give some livecd a try. You run the whole thing from a CD or DVD and don't have to install anything to the hard drive. It's a great way to see if your hardware is recognized properly and just try different things out before you start properly migrating from Windows to Linux.

Knoppix is the best livecd I've tried.

Suse is an excellent choice too, very professional but incredibly easy to use. Never liked the Mandrake look that much but you can't really go wrong with any of the big ones.