OS Change?

Hay guys,
I'm looking to change from Windows XP over to a different OS, and I was wondering what OS's you guys would recomend. A couple of requirements would be:
-As stable as possible.
-Able to be somewhat easy to use until I figure my way around.
-Able to be customizable once I -do- figure my way around.
-Able to run Windows OS games and software easily.
-NOT A MAC.

Thoughts?

Guh.

Move XP to a secondary partition for gaming.  Keep it clean, keep it lean.

Keep data on another partition.

On another partition install Kubuntu GNU/Linux.  Give it a try.  Experiment with it.

When you're comfy with Kubuntu, replace it with Gentoo sometime this Summer, when you have a week free.  Be prepared for headaches, but also a new found obsession.

When you're pretty handy at Gentoo, replace it with Linux From Scratch, sometime over Winter Break, Spring Break (if you're a loser), or next Summer.  Be prepared for a week long continuous headache, but a new sense of total 1337-ness.

When you're comfy with LFS, replace it with Debian or something so you can get some real work done.  Hopefully by then, you'll have grown weary of the repetitive games they're pushing now, and you won't care about Windows anymore.  Or Linux will be a widely accepted gaming platform.  One of those.