IMHO I think you should take a look at
Gentoo.
The good thing about gentoo is:
1. You can compile everything from source.
2. It gives you a "start from scratch" box without all the un-necessary mumbo-jumbo like gnome kde etc
3. The emerge system is like apt-get.
4. Excellent install documentation!
They have 3 stages for install.
1. Start from scratch! What you do here is update your use flags your compiler flags like, "-march=pentium4 -02 -pipe -funroll-loops" etc etc. You then bootstrap the system and then begin compiling the basic tools like gcc, ls, bzip2, etc.
2. Start with the bootstrapping already done. All you have to do is update your use flags and maybe look at your compile flags. Then your start compiling your system.
3. Everything is already pre-compiled that best suits your system depending on your processor. It's basically a giant zip file.
NOTE-The compile process from stage 1 actually takes a day and a half and from stage2 about 1 day depending on the speed of your system.
The reason why this is so good, because you have programs compiled for your system. If you have a pentium4 you can take full advantage of the processor features such as mmx sse sse2 etc. This makes a very highly tuned system!
Now about the emerge command. Gentoo keeps a list of all software for linux, thier versions, and dependencies. Much like apt-get.
To get the latest versions of the programs you would type emerge sync. WHat this does is syncs the list on your computer with the list on thier rsync mirrors.
Then you can type emerge -u system or world to update your entire system to the newest versions of installed software(or downgrade if security bugs were found). Best of all, it does all the dependency checking for you and initiates all the use flags for the programs at compile time. No more rpms or tgz's.
I can't sell it enough! I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread!
Anyways, head on over read a bit and download the cd for your processor =)
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