beginner question

hello,

i have a dell inspiron 2400 with 1gb ram, a pentium four processor and a 40gb hard drive.

i tried linux about five years ago (on a really inferior computer) and although i was able to get it up and running, i found it a little too technical for my needs (browsing, IM, email, word processing, basic multimedia tasks).

i'm interested to see how far linux has evolved since then with a view to having another bash at it.

i would want to maintain my XP installation.

my questions are :

(1) are there the applications available on linux to mirror what i would use on my windows installation? ie equivalents of itunes, trillian, etc.

(2) from what i've indicated, would you think that a linux installation would be a net benefit for me?

(3) if so, what distribution would you recommend? bearing in mind that i'm looking for something that is free, widely supported and easy to use.

thanks in advance.