Going to try some kind of linux again. Don't have the money right now to upgrade from onboard stuff right now but I would like to find a compatible linux os for this pc. I want sound, video, and onboard network to work on this motherboard Soyo SY-K7VME.

I have a Athlon XP 2000+ cpu in it, VIA KM400 Chipset, Onboard VIA VT1612 audio, Onboard VIA KM400 Video 32Mb, Onboard VIA 10/100 nic, and a Maxtor ATA 133/ 7200rpm 30 gig hard drive, 48x CD- ROM and Going to put in my Lite-On 32x cd burner.

Is there any version out there that is most compatible with this setup?

Also I have a US Robotics External 56k v.09 modem that connects via serial port and a dial up ISP that connects only using user name, password and phone number. Will this work with linux also?

I have tried Live versions of Knoppix 3.3 and SuSE 9.1 but couldn't tell if sound was working or not. Lan seemd to work.

Need simple version that I can install yahoo messenger compatible chat and some audio cd rip programs etc. I want to tie it to my windows network too.

Knoppix is a good way of testing how compatible hardware is....did you try increasing the volumes for the sound channels with one of the mixers eg kmix or auxmix? Were you able to play anything with a media player like xmms even though you couldn't hear it?

Your external modem should work fine. You can use either kppp or wvdial to connect (there are others too like the gnome dialler).

You can use programs like gaim to connect to ICQ, yahoo, MSN etc.

There are many programs that use cdparanoia to rip cd audio. k3b and xcdroast are good cdwriting programs. grip is quite a good ripper and encoder which you can customise easily to use lame, ogg etc.

Samba provides windoze network compatibility.

Just about all distros these days will include the above and more....I would probably suggest one of the newer versions of mandrake, suse or fedora. It's really down to personal choice. I used mandrake for a few years before finally settling for slackware.

If you don't mind the slightly steeper learning curve and really want to get your teeth stuck in try slackware, debian or gentoo. You can get a round up of the main ditros at www.distrowatch.com.

After Talking to a few people I think i'm gonna try Fedora Core 1. The cd ripping program needs to support ripping to mp3's or i'll have to just use it on windows. My car stereo only plays mp3's up to I believe 320kbps.

Grip supports ripping to MP3 and for the codec you can choose to use Blade, Fraunhofer, LAME and/or Xing due to being able to customise the commands used.

You may as well go for Fedoara Core 2 which I believe is now available. I haven't used a redhat/fedora distro for quite some time but know that they ditched MP3 support for legal reasons. It was easy enough to download a fix though....I don't know if it is included in fedora.

I already have SuSE 9.1 personal and tried the live version. Would I be better off Installing SuSE 9.1 pro? If so where can I download it?

I have someone downloading Fedora for me but will have to go get it when he's finished.

Suse ISOs aren't generally available for download. You can do an FTP install but if you already have v9.1 personal I would start with that. The difference being that the pro version comes with a lot more software, but if there is anything you find yourself missing you can just download and install it yourself. Having just had a quick look on xmule, you can find the CD and DVD ISOs for download.

Did you buy Suse? If not it may be worth a purchace, the last time I looked at suse it came with lots of great documentation, hell I still refer back to my v6 suse manual sometimes!

No I downloaded it before I reentered the dreaded dial up:( Basic Cable with Broadband internet was running me $90 a month! This small town sucks and their taking advantage of it at the cable company. DSL is here at half the price of cable broadband but I have to look into it.

If you do go for an ADSL/SDSL modem, make sure that you get one with a network interface as opposed to USB (some have both) as it makes it much easier to set up.

Yea i'm not to fond of usb for broadband myself.. give me a nic anyday! Might work good on 1 computer but after that it's a pain.