Before I install Gentoo, I am looking over the handbook to figure out what I will be doing. The only thing that confuses me is USE flags. I do not know which flags I should set. My computer will be a desktop, used mainly for programming, but also for daily tasks like surfing the web. What flags should I set, or what do you need to know to help me configure my USE flags? Thanks in advance for any help.

I use "-march=AMD64 -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe". The march setting is obviously processor dependent. The documentation on Gentoo's site has a list of all the options.

STOP! DON'T USE HIS ADVICE! What he gave you were not USE flags, they were CFLAGS, an entirely different thing. USE flag settings are not imperative at the beginning, as you can always change them later. Just don't set a USE flag value for now.

Oh, my bad... sorry, I'm exhusted.....

That's good that I don't have to worry about it. I think the install should be pretty straightforward. Then all I really have to worry about is getting my wireless card up with ndiswrapper. I'm going to move my computer so I can get an Ethernet connection, but I need to get my wireless card up as soon as possible after the installation.

it depends on what you are trying to optimize for.
if you want to optimize for KDE you should have USE="arts qt kde -gnome -gtk"

if you want to have the gtk and gnome libraries installed then just include them in there.

if you read the gentoo handbook it has a lot of helpful information this plus there's a file that has a lot of USE flags and their purpose in it.

it's all up to personal preference as well as the program u are installing
for example, if you are installing MythTV you would want to "mysql" included in the USE variable.

Hope that helps,
CrazyYoyimbo