Completely new and need some clarification please
 

So I finally finished building my new computer which has a WD raptor 150gb as a primary and a seagate 320gb I use as storage for various apps, music, and whatever. While installing windows xp pro, I partitioned the raptor into 2 75gb drives. The primary partition is to be used for xp and the second partition I was going to use as drive for linux distros.

Someone told me that I shouldn't have done that and that I should have just partitioned the drive out later according to my needs with various distros. Is this true?

My original plan was to install ubuntu onto the secondary partition once I got xp straightend out and use ubuntu for internet, email, documentation, and just leave xp for gaming. Then try out other distros as I got comfortable.

Am I going about this the wrong way? I have no clue as to how linux distros work but I would like to find out and be able to get away from the day to day hassles with windows. But I want to be able to start out on the right foot as well.

Sorry about the long post but I would appreciate any opinions.

In general, my preference is to use a 10-15GB partition for the install, 1GB for swap, and set aside the rest for data.

its generally advisable to let the distro to do the paritioning unless you are an expert at paritioning

Oh well, anything goes. Some of my distros are spread out over three different disks and they are running faster than those I have all on one disk.
Anyway, you've got 75GB left, that's enough for at least five Ubuntus.

"Should" is a strong word here...I won't presume to say what you SHOULD do.
With dual-boot, I prefer a separate data partition--ideally on a different drive. For the drive with the OSes on it, I use only the partitions that I need at the moment. Right now I have 15GB for Windows, and an average of 10GB each for the various Linux installs. None of these partitions is close to full.

Creating new partitions as you need them is infinitely easier and safer than re-sizing existing ones with data on them.

Couldn't I just create several new partitions within the alloted 75gb space?

When you posted this:I assumed that you meant that you partitioned into two PARTITIONS. (Windows sometimes calls them "drives", which is incorrect.)

Do you have a partitioning tool like GParted or something on a Linux "live CD"? That will tell you for sure what you have.

At my site, there is an article on partitions that might be useful