* What is the best(fastest) M/Board to use with this system?- By that I mean will all Hardware and CPU's work with this?. <--99% will, although I think if you ask 10 people which is the fastest you may get 10 different answers
* Will Linux support all types of Chipsets?- I'm so used to M$ stuff that it's not funny when you get into a thing like this. <-- Yes, the generic kernel supports almost every chipset, and after you get the system installed and a few things working you can compile a custom kernel optimized for the specific processor/chipset you have in your motherboard, although keep in mind that if you dual boot as jooles describes, then you might not be able to just move the hard drive from the old computer to the new without recompiling a kernel that supports the processor/chipset in the new computer's motherboard. I prefer and buy AMD processors over intel so I can simply move a hard disk from an old computer to a new one and have it boot just fine- however if I moved an AMD kernel to a MoBo with an intel processor, the boot process would bomb as soon as the bootloader tried to boot the AMD kernel on the Intel board. One solution could be to keep the generic kernel as a backup so you can boot on any motherboard, and then compile a custom kernel that suits the specific chipset/processor combo you have got on the computer- this will allow you to move the drive from computer to computer, while also having a kernel optimized for whatever hardware you use everyday. I keep the generic kernel as a backup option in my bootloader menu and set the customized kernel as my default kernel
* Is there a requirement for more or less RAM with a Linux system?. <-- Depends. Overall, linux uses less, especially if you are just using the command line and no X Windows, but you might still like to have as much memory as a windows system uses for the mere convenience of being able to have tons of apps runnig simultaneously, or have 40+ high resolution digital pictures open simultaneously. It is a personal preference, in my opinion. Tailor the amount of RAM to your needs and wants. Linux will certainly run just fine on 1/2 the memory windows requires and quite comfortably on the amount MS recommends for windows. Compiling a custome kernel that leaves out extraneous or uneeded features will slim down the size of the kernel and is one of the biggest ways to save memory or just have a system with a smaller memory footprint.
