Linux Emulator?

[d000hg]

http://www.intel.com/cd/software/pro...eng/219771.htm

It IS free after all, phew. I have absolutely no idea what flavours of Linux it will work on... since I'll be doing something reasonably complex - actually compiling and running new programs - will a Linux emulator/virtual machine work OK? I have heard of VirtualPC so I might try that - I basically want whichever is easiest to install and use without too much messing about. Can anybody advise me on performance with such software - does it actually emulate instructions or is it somehow doing something more clever?

Oh, and something I missed - I actually install Linux or whatever on VirtualPC as if it were a real PC... isn't that going to be even more problematic that a normal installation?