Gentoo Redux
I recently attempted a reinstall of Gentoo, after a response to a forum post shed some additional light on the ATI/Xorg issue. Thanks Jengu (you know who you are).
I now have a working desktop in Gentoo, and still consider it my first Linux install. While I have much work to do learning how to build and maintain my new ground-up Linux system, I must say that I look forward to it.
Time will tell.