Hi Ishaim, I'm a complete noob myself, but here is my experience :
I didn't manage to connect to the internet via knoppix, but I decided using the live CD and having no HD support was to much trouble - so I installed (Mandrake) Linux on my HD.
As far as repartitioning - I had only one NTFS partition with windows XP on it, what I did was use Partition Magic 8 to shrink the size of the existing partition, and make room for linux. I then installed mandrake linux with no trouble at all, and now can use both OS with no problems.
but one important thing:
DO NOT create a linux partition with Partition Magic, as this can cause trouble. What you want to do is only resize the existing partition, so that you end up with some unassigned space on your hard drive (I left 8GB out of 40) and then when you install linux it will find this space and use it automatically (I had no trouble with mandrake, I hear other distros can be harder for someone with no experience)
Hope that helps!!