looking 4 advice

[new2linux]

Hi all, I'm a newbie for Linux and looking for some friendly advice
I have an old Hp ML310 that I'd like to build as a storage and possibly
media server. Any recommendations on which Free Linux server software
would be the best for this hardware / usage ?
Also where is the best place to download it from ?
I have a lot of technical knowledge and know a fair bit about
MS but want to try my hand with Linux

Many Thanks

[netwar]

It depends on how much RAM and storage space you have... If you're under 300MB RAM then i would use an all commandline interface(if that sounds a little too much look at puppy linux or damn small linux) otherwise like an old machine i have that is a DOOM,ssh and ftp server with 456MB RAM then you can go for any distro that has a light weight interface like Lubuntu, Linux Mint(great to go to from windows), Fedora and many more.