okay gentoo definately comes in a free 64-bit version and i posted a link to it in a post above. and i like gentoo because it is very configurable (every aspect provides you with choices) and it is very user-friendly. I have also read that it is one of the faster versions of linux (although i cant verify this).
and agex - the process that takes awhile is if you want to install EVERYTHING from source. this gives you a very fast and efficient system, but takes a long time as everything has to compile from scratch. Of course, you can just install a pre-compiled image of a system, but then that defeats half the purpose of installing linux. Also, installing the GUI (graphics user interface) takes quite awhile too. I think my installation of gnome took over 12 hours but it was awhile ago so i cant really remember.