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Unix and Linux never get full support from hardware manufacturers when things are released, so an older machine is actually bettter for your first go round, since most of that hardware should be supported "out of the box" by now. Personally I'd try a Linux distro first, and if you're still interested later a true Unix such as one of the BSD's. Red Hat is well documented and easy to install, and I personally like the native RPM support (rpm's being a sort of "program registry" that lets you easily remove/install/upgrade apps that come in RPM packages).
If you happen to have a high bandwidth internet connection, just head over to the ftp site of the distribution you choose to go with, and download the thing. You can download an ISO image of the install disk into Windows, then unpack it with a Windows ISO proggy and install from DOS mode.
I'd avoid Red Hat 7 if you choose to go their route, 6.2 (zoot) should do you nicely.
Xayd
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