Is it accurate to assume this foray into Linux is the first? I suggest Mint and either the version based on Ubuntu or the newer one based on Debian. I also want to point out that Ubuntu is NOT Debian. Just based on it although Ubuntu made a lot of changes. I suggest Mint because whether you choose the Ubuntu version or Debian one, you would be able to switch to Ubuntu or Debian derivatives fairly easily. The familiarity would allow you to try other distros that has its base on either Ubuntu or Debian.
Also, there's many blogs or self-help pages with either Ubuntu or Debian as the central distro used.
I would pick Debian but I can understand the choices many make in selecting Ubuntu. Whatever you choose, make sure you know that there's a learning curve and even experienced linux users run into brick walls or obstacles. There's a few issues of compatibility and WIP situations so google is definitely your friend in so many cases.
Your wireless and GPU will probably be your main problem areas so depending on whether you have Atheros, Broadcom or Intel (I think those are the three possibilities of what your wifi chip might be?), the degree of difficulty may vary a bit. The Nvidia drivers don't really have much of a free or open source alternative to speak of (that works for all intensive purposes) so to get good graphics optimal performance, you need to install the proprietary drivers.
Anyway, you can read all about that on the forum and FAQ/manual on the web page of the distro you choose. You might be using google a lot but it will help a lot too.
In the meantime, you could check distrowatch for getting some ideas but I suggest trying the distros out on live media but straight Debian doesn't really have an established live media but there are some distros based on Debian that have live media versions. Check them out and see if you can have a spare partition to try them out.
My two cents that is probably not worth much after inflation which probably went up already (due to this long post).