Welcome to the Forums Robert. ;)

I think the main problems you'll run into are the Dell wireless card and the (possibly) ATi video driver. 

The Dell wireless cards generally involve some sort of trickery to get them to work, the intel cards are a lot more clearcut - they work from the get go.

Here's a link about it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=857532

One of the best things for you to do would be to head over to ubuntuforums.org and run searches there for what you want, or even ask the people there.

I use it - The members there are quite helpful and it's very active.

As for dual booting Ubuntu and Vista have a look at this link:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm