hi there am new to linux, fedora core 3 and wanted to know if there was a manual (downloadable) that i could use to totally get my way around?
Also i would like to know if there was a way of running certain windows applications and other pc games on fedora core 3.

i'd advise against fc3, it was a pretty dodgy version, and is now really a little old and outdated, which will make it harder for you to learn and install software on it. try fedora 8 or maybe ubuntu.

You can run most Windows applications using Wine. This monitors the program and every time it calls the operating system converts the Windows command into a Linux one. Not really an emulator, so it's not slow.

You really do need something more up-to-date than Fedora 3, or you're going to find new software is incompatible with the libraries you have installed. When you've got Fedora 8, you can get wine by simply running the following as root:

yum install wine

And that's it!

Learning your way about is mostly a matter of searching for information when you need it, but do visit the site www.fedorafaq.org/f8 for a start: in fact, read it before you do anything else.

Well,it depends what you want to do.Do you want to dual boot with Windows?Do you want to use Fedora core 3 as server for some services?Anyway,this link http://howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_fedora_core_3 will give you a nice owerviev of Fedora core 3 server setup,this link http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc3.html is installation guide,and this link is for faq http://www.fedorafaq.org/fc3/.It would be a good idea,after you install Fedora core 3,to learn about it,by using it and read about it,then on 29 April 2008 to install Fedora 9,because that's the date of the next release.