http://www.howtoforge.com/
has loads of useful tutorials for Linux newbies, especially those aimed at ppl new to a distro, or those new to Linux, and what to add the same/similar programmes to MS Windows
The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfec...op-ubuntu-8.10
Also as suggested earlier, out of the box Ubuntu's system requirements are similar to XP. You can turn off things like compiz (fancy effects when you minimise windows etc) but there's a lot of background bloat.
XUbuntu would be slightly better but not that much.
there's distros like U-Lite (Ubuntu Lite)
http://u-lite.org/
and crunch bang
http://crunchbanglinux.org/
which are stripped down Ubuntu distros
as for drivers, I know you've got that sorted but I think most Linux users recognise that ATI are far behind Nvidia when it comes to supporting Linux. I know some distros recommend you use their ATI drivers coded by them rather than the official ATI ones!
I also recommend k3b for burning, closest to Nero you'll get for Linux
Linux Mint is good if you like Ubuntu, it's Ubuntu, but a lot of the codec stuff etc has already been done for you
