I loaded ver 1.4 to start out with, but have since updated to the latest version. I don't know what it's called. I have had tremendous help from a friend of mine who is a Linux nut, and went with Gentoo on his reccomendation. So far, so good. Installing it was a major pain, but it's been worth it. The thing that I've found with Gentoo is that it is what you make it. You have to spend some time optimizing it for your specific needs, but once done, you have a rock solid platform. Also, I might mention that my Gentoo box is a P-III 700, w/ 128 MB RAM, and my XP box is a P4 2.2 Ghz w/ 512 MB RAM. The Gentoo box is faster in ALL comparable apps than the XP box is.
I have found that Linux runs much faster than WinXP (XP is kinda bloated) and is more stable. I have found no real difference in speed or stability between Win2K and Mandrake, though. In fact, my Mandrake has crashed on occassion, while my Win2K blows out maybe once a year.