I've just put together my first project build and am running ati gpu but come to find out nvidia has much better driver support for our beloved Linux. So, I'm wondering if anyone here has any definitive opinions about the viability of just swapping the gpu for and nvidia card. I intend to use this box primarily for java and python hacking and a good measure of 3D with blender.
I guess my real question is: will it be a problem to run the nvidia card on the ati chip set? Any thoughts???

edit: mobo is a Foxconn A78AX-S (ATI chip set, socket am2/am2+)

I don't see why it wouldn't work but these days ati has decent drivers to. I have nvidia in my media pc and ati in my laptop both have full 3d working perfectly and run drivers from the manufacturer.

I have ATI running in my laptop as well. I have it on good authority though that ATI has not released the drivers for the new xorg though so that might change soon. I run ubuntu on my laptop and the new release comes out in four days, I guess we'll see very soon.