1. What are good install options(eg, install kde, multimedia, etc)? I did a SuSE install and it comes with a ton of stuff I don't need nor have the time to remove each one indivisually.
2. Where can I get xmms MP3/WMA and all those good codecs?

Bear in mind that you don't need to select any "selections". When picking packages, you can change the filter to "package groups" or "search" as well.

I will sometimes grab a few selections, but by and large your system will get bloated if you rely upon them too heavily. Also, not every game is in the games selection. It is only a collection of most of the better games available. To fine tune your system, you will probably want to browse by package groups instead.

I don't see what you're asking for with xmms and mp3's. I've always had xmms capable of playing mp3's immediately after install. As for WMA, I'd recommend mplayer. This ISN'T a package provided by SuSE (trying to avoid liability, I think). Instead you can get this from one of several other sources. After you are installed, open YaST and add a new installation source (under "change source of installation") to point to http://packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/9.3 . Now you should be able to find mplayer in the "install and remove software" wizard.

(another installation source that I haven't fully explored is ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.3)

(When adding an installation source, don't start or end a line with a '/'. These are done for you.)

Also keep in mind that you'll be probably installing new programs from net. You will need compilers for them. For all good check C/C++ compilers

SuSE 9.3 does not have mp3 support. You will have to run YOU and select the package 'Multimedia package 1'. It is somewhere down in the list.

Definitely get most YOU patches. There will be some that you don't want or need, but by and far you will want almost all of them.

It's also a good idea to turn on SuSE watcher, which watches for new critical patches for YOU.