I am a total newbie to linux, an intermediate with WIN and MAC OS sytems, looking to set up my first linux box

What I want to do with the system: I want to set up a media server using my old (circa 2001) IBM thinkpad (not sure of specific model number). All I am looking to do with the system for now is serve my music files (mostly mp3, a few wma and ACC if possible) on a home network (if it were accessable through iTunes it would be great). i am looking for advice as to where to start and with what distros.

Obsticles: The screen, CD/DVD drive, and NIC card on the notebook I want to use are disabled or otherwise unuseable. I need to be able to set up the box to with a Remote Desktop, enable an external DVD-RW drive (have a LG E101), external HD (have a Western Digal) and either a wireless USB or wired USB NIC from a live CD

My budget is quite low ($100 or so), any help at all is appreciated. Thanks

Lets see -

it sounds like you really have all that you need to actually do this. If you want to serve these up to the rest of your computers, I know that you could use Samba to allow for network shares on your windows and mac compies. The setup isn't all that difficult, and I think I have a semi-walkthrough on the archlinux wiki. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba

Ignore the part about pacman, and continue on. (after installing samba for your distro of choice that is) Of course, if you have to log in remotely, you can SSH or telnet in but that may be a bit difficult and doesn't give you a desktop at all. You could also get a cheap CRT monitor and attach that to your laptop if possible. Not sure what to do about that though.

As far as distros go, it depends on what you want. Simple to configure via commandline - Slackware, Gentoo, Arch, Crux etc.

Pretty (although this seems not to be your aim) - SuSE, Ubuntu, Red hat etc.

http://www.ssma.us/debian_media.html

a bit out of date, but the basics are there. enjoy.

I've found an old moniter (I actually went over to a nieghbor's house like I was asking for a cup of sugar and he let me borrow one) and have started reading about and downloading a few different live setups and builting space in my closet for the thing. Thanks for your help so far.