Most likely it should be fine. Check hardware compatability at
http://www.linux-laptop.net/ As far as power, that laptop has more oomph that my own laptop and my email/web server put together.
As far as a good Linux distribution, the one that comes with the big thick book you are going to go out and buy is typically a good start. Before you buy, find out what version of which distro is included, and check to see how recent it is on the distributions website.
If I had to pick a distribution for you, I'd go with Slackware (9.1 is latest), Mandrake (10.0), Debian (3.0), or Suse (9.something).
Also, check
http://www.linuxjunior.org and the help forums there.