&games

Try Ubuntu Linux. It's risk free if you try a Live CD first.

http://ubuntu.com
 

Yup, I just finally got it to work a bit after a couple weeks, and its still jumpy. Try the Ubuntu as iain suggests, however, I've always prefered SUSE Linux... I got SUSE 11 with Vista on a dual boot so I can switch between the two. Vista for games, SUSE for anything I want to actually keep and work with without losing it to the bit bucket.
 

I've got to chime in with Iain and Sudsy: go Linux. You won't go seriously wrong with Ubuntu (or their KDE fork, Kubuntu), though they push the edge a little and release some software before it's mature. I sleep easier using something a little more stable: MEPIS, which is closely pegged to the rock-solid Debian.

No special quarrel with SUSE -- but I felt that their desktop was ugly. Not my taste.

Sudsy's right though, that the way to do games -- unfortunately -- is on Windows.