Cant install any linux on my new system

Hi,
Im not totally new to Linux. I have in the past on last system installed a few distros of Linux without any problems. Well I just built a new ssytem and no distro will work.
I have Win XP installed on the primary mater drive on ideo.
I tried vector and peanut and neither of then showed my drives properly.
And they give me a ERROR ERROR cannot find the xxxxxxxx.bz2 for either even though know I have DLed the iso properly and confirmed the md5sum.
I also tried the latest Mandrak which has always been a breeze in the past but nw it just hangs after I hit enter to enter the install. Nothing but I blank screen.
ANy ideas?

P4 2.8 800 mhz fsb
Abit IC7 motherboard
dlink ethernet card
OCZ ddr400 ram
LG CD-rom and lite on CD-rw
ati 9700 pro vid card.

Have you tried RedHat or Gentoo?

Well Itried RedHat but it was buggy on my last system and I found it slow.
Gentoo I havent had the nerve to try. The install looks pretty harsh. But Im considering that or Debian or Slackware next.
Im thinking thought that this has something more to do with my system than the distros themsleves.

I'm also thinking that it goes deeper than distros, but it would be easier to debug on Gentoo, since it's more verbose.
I really have no idea what's wrong with vector and peanut, but then I haven't tried them, on the other hand. Anyway, when you install Mdk, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F[1-4] to see if you can switch VT after it appears to have hung.

Ok I will try that.
In the mean time I just did a search on Mandrake forum and someone had mentioned it might be due to having 1 GB of RAM. It doesnt make sense that that would be a problem but I want to try and confirm or deny this first. Im certainly not removing my RAM.

That won't be a problem. If you have that much, then you should certainly compile your kernel with high memory support for it to be able to use all your memory in the most efficient way, but it won't be a problem even without high mem support.

I just found this from the Mandrake erreta.

http://www.netikka.net/tmb/9.1/

Seems it has to do with a framebuffer problem or something.

"the VESA framebuffer problem that hangs systems with 1024 MB of RAM or more... "

Im going to give this a try just in case.

another idea is to try the knoppix live cd. if it works, you can install it to your hd if you like, if not, you have a really cool live cd to keep. hardware recog may not be exact, but it is usually pretty close