I have been running the lnx4win OS with Mandrake and have liked it so I have decided to take the next step. I just got Partition Magic and now am going to repartition my computer. I am going to install Mandrake 8.1 but I need to know how much room I should give it. In the lnx4win I gave it 3 GB but that was the maximum that it would let me give it. Would 8 GB be enough to comfortable work in Linux (with Star Office and a bunch of games)?

Second, do I need to make 3 or 2 partitions? I will need 1 for Win ME and 1 for the Linux root but do I need to specify another for the Linux swap?

8 gigs should be plenty to work with..

and a basic install of linux i would recommend at least a swap partition, / partition and then one for your windows.. i always create a /boot but you can work with the minimal. its good at times though to have more than just that, in case of a system failure, you can save data by installing and rebuilding what you need, instead of say everything.