Seriously, just erase your hard drive and install LINUX. Seriously, I plan to buy a new laptop this year, with Win XP, then use Magic Partition to add & learn Linux. (Which do you recommend, Red Hat, Suse, or Lindows?)
Go to linux.org and read the tutorials. Check out linux planet. You'll have to get an external modem as linux doesn't like software modems that windows uses. Red Hat just released a new version. Do buy a book as that little bird will give you the bird on occasion.