Have you installed the Windows truetype fonts in Linux? Unless things have changed, Linux as supplied only has bitmap-type fonts, which as you have noticed; look awful.
I seem to remember getting my 'windows' fonts from
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ last time I tried Mandrake (currently have Suse installed), but don't ask me how I installed them as it was last year... :> I remember it being a pain to figure it all out though.