@elite - Cool man. Don't worry about me. I just like to have fun on these forums.
Yes, partitioning is scary. But that can be true of Windows too, if you have to do all of it. The best bet, is to have exactly that much amount of free space on your hdd that you want to assign to linux. Then tell the auto partitioner to use all the free space available for Linux. Then you are fine.
If your entire drive is free (as in the case of a single boot Windows), then it is just as easy as Windows (or maybe easier).
The main problem is that people install Windows as a first OS (no need to preserve any other stuff), while Linux is invariably a second install. When you do it the other way (I do that a lot because Windows gets corrupted and needs a reformat, while the multiple Linux/BSD distros are clean), then Windows overwrites GRUB (or whatever other bootloader you choose), which I find irritating. At least Linux offers you a choice (and generally auto-detects and adds Windows too). It is a minor problem for me, but annoying none the less.
@Ujjwal, I don't think XGL will even run, neither will AIGLX. I mean, you won't get any of the fancy compositing effects, so it will be a waste. You do need a minimum Radeon/NV to run, and even a low powered card works fine.