i need a distribution that can playback mp3s and any other form of music out of the box so to speak. as well as dvds and audio cds. and can burn mp3 files to audio cd format easily. Also, i need to be able to access my windows files from within linux. not write, just read. Any suggestions for me on this? i just got fc4 but it wont see my windows files 'ntfs' unknown file system. which bites.

oh and i need something that can transfer songs to and from my zen touch creative mp3 player

Any Linux distro can do what you're asking for, even Fedora. However you'll probably find Mandriva a good choice as it has MP3 playback and NTFS support out of the box. Once you visit http://easyurpmi.zarb.org and add the extra software repositories you can easily get DVD and Divx, WMV etc. playback by installing win32codecs and xine-win32. By default the k3b in Mandriva will automatically convert MP3s into uncompressed wave format when you drag them onto the file list for an audio CD. I'm not sure about the Creative player but if it is a normal USB mass storage device you should be able to just plug it in and use it like any other external drive.

is there any way i can make fedora see the windows files easily?
if so, then i think i would be set. even if i have to make some adjustments to make mp3s play. which i'm not sure if i do or not, since all of my mp3s are in windows.

NTFS: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#ntfs
MP3: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#mp3

i'd second tkedwards here and suggest you try Mandriva..

MP3 out of the box, and easy to get DVD playback going, plus Windows Media playback, and more, from the archives over at Penguin Liberation Front. And Mandriva's excellent URPMI will deal with software installation seamlessly for you.

Another, perhaps slightly left-of-field alternative might be TurboLinux, which has been especially designed as a media distribution, with everything working right from the box. I believe it isn't cost-free, but it might be worthy of your investigation - I've never tried it myself.

i downloaded the turbolinux 7 isos from linuxiso.org and installed them. but when i boot up i dont know how to make it go to the graphical mode. can someone tell me how to do this?

Login as root and run the command

Try MediaInLinux. It is a live cd that is directly aimed at different media formats in linux, audio/video/images.
www.mediainlinux.org