I don't know how accurate this is but it might be worth a shot if you have no clue which Distro you need.

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Just take the test and see what distro it recommends and what percentage of match it is.

Been in my signature for about 7 years!

Guess I need to read the fine print

In my opinion, finding the right distro for each one of us is just a matter of experience. I mean, you have to install one, play around with it, understand what you like and what you like not and eventually try another which it will fit better your needs. If you have enough space on the hard disk, you can even try more than one distro at once.
Anyway I think that web page can give you a good starting point.

Agree with VDP76. There's no substitute for trying different distros for yourself, then making a choice.

I agree with both of you. However, Having so much freedom to choose and so many choices was a pretty daunting realization for me. Some of the things I needed to know were which distro will run on my old machines, will be the best for me to wet my feet, support my hardware out of the box, etc.... This is only because I fell victim to the misconception that Linux is HARD. The simplified questions in the "test" got a good feel about my skill level. I admit that if my wireless wasn't supported out of the box I never managed to get it working. There is a distro for every skill level and then some. As far as which one is the best for someone like me who had never even seen linux run, a "all done for you" is what I needed. With a simple install I was able to get up and running. Having access to the internet then allowed me to research the different distros (I have about 15 I kept) and play with them. I now have it narrowed down to 5. 2 for my everyday stuff and 3 to learn on. I think I have a diverse selection and although I will always be years behind you guys, I think I now have a solid base to work with.

My long winded point is oddly enough, after pulling my hair out I installed Mint and it was #2 in the list suggested by that link.
OpenSUSE was #1. This tool could have saved me a lot of time getting started. But again, now that I am up and running, I agree with the standard Try it and see if you like it.

I tried it and i got the distros i use.
LOL
There was feodora(Spelling?) and ubuntu
Its good for new users however.

lol, same with me. #1 was OpenSUSE, #2 was Fedora.