Linux distro diffs

[sinck@ugive.com]

\_ LOOK FOR COMMENTS BELOW:
\_ 
\_ 
\_ -> My question may require to long of an answer but I will try 
\_ -> to make it
\_ -> easy.  Here are my applications, real and possible.
\_ -> 
\_ -> 1. I want to learn Linux so I am setting up a box as a 
\_ -> workstation to learn
\_ -> Liunux and Linux programming.
\_ 
\_ Stick with most (defacto) standard ones 
\_ Red Hat, Mandrake
\_ Mandrake is compiled for at least Pentium,
\_ where Red Hat will run on 386.
\_ You may see up to 20% better performance from 
\_ Red Hat.  

I've got a quick question before I sit down with bundles of SRPMS....
If you take a standard srpm and rebuild it, will it automatically
notice the hardware you're on and adjust appropriately?  Like shifting
from a vanilla 386 build to a 686 build?

I figure the kernel, X, glibc, and xmms would be the biggest wins.....  :-)

David