Who Do You Recommend For Linux Computers?

I just bought a new computer, and went with Windows. It seems to be working fine (although I should have put more thought into it since I had trouble moving my old files over to the new computer). I got thinking about trying Linux, and that maybe buying a new(er) computer with a Linux distribution already installed, and with the GUI already working might be the way to go. Any comments on this? Who has earned your trust locally to sell you a computer that works out of the box with Linux? I am considering an Athlon 64 X2 with enough RAM to work comfortably. I'm not into graphics intensive games (unless you count games like "Sim City"), and am more interested in being able to go on the Internet, download/upload files to Flickr, Picassa, and YouTube. Since I would be starting out from "zero" I wouldn't be interested in transferring most of my data files (such as I made with MS Access) to the new computer, but I would be interested in developing some of my own databases. I looked at "Open Office", but I could "look" at my old files, but couldn't add any new records to the table that I had. That isn't a problem since I bought an upgrade of Office 97 Professional at Sam's Club that allowed me to continue working with my old files. But looking to the future it might be better for me if I switched over to "freeware" or "cheapware" since I'm on a fixed income.