Linux supports a lot of hardware, the problem rise mostly on wireless cards. Thinkpads should be the most supported, other than linux first laptops. If you are building one, take a look at linux-hardware.org (where people uploads probes of their hardware). If you want to save you a headache, avoid nvidia. I never used it, but I’ve read a lot of issues related to it. Maybe someone else here can say more about it.
For distro choosing, nowaday almost all the biggest distros should be able to do anything. So the choose is about desktop environments (DE). Are you coming from Windows or from Mac?
If you are coming from Windows, then I would recommend Linux Mint with Cinnamon DE, because:
It is based on Debian (so it gets a lot of support)
Windows like GUI
Good default settings
Flatpak preinstalled
Good customization
If you are coming from Mac, then I would recommend Fedora Linux with Gnome DE, because: