My guess is that it's all dependent on your BIOS and if that one can handle such a big disk. And if you're using a really old installation/kernel (version 0.9.something) maybe..
*remembers when his pc wouldn't recognise any disks over 1 gig*
If the BIOS takes it then Linux shouldn't have any problems with it. I'm guessing it's a IDE disk we're talking about here.
If i don't remember totally wrong i think that linux with kernel 2.6.0 handles disks up to 2,5 terrabytes.