Asking what the "best" flavor of linux is, is a lot like asking what the best flavor of ice cream is. You will get different opinion from every person.

If you are REALY linux savy you might look at lfs "Linux From Scratch" You pick you kernel version and buiold your own distro fromt he ground up. THen it's what you make it.
Compatability isn't realy an issue since all linux distros are interoperable. Mandrake Redhat and knoppix are probablyt he easiest to install. basicaly the only thing you can do is keep trying distros untill you find the right one. For me, Mandrake 9.0 is just right. For you, maybe gentoo, or redhat or lfs, it's like ice cream