Probably the 'nv' driver (the open source 2d driver for nvidia) doesn't support the N80 series video cards either.
That's what makes it very difficult for new people with nvidia hardware.
If you want to install Ubuntu and get it working then you can use the 'alternative install cdrom' and install Ubuntu using text mode.
Once that is done, if you have a second computer, then install ssh-server (if it's not installed by default) then ssh in from another box (putty is a good windows client) and install the Nvidia drivers that way.
Basicly how that would go would be something like:
install, install, install, install.
After that reboot, then if X fails to start....
login into the console:
sudo su -
#that logged you in as root
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
# to make sure you have all the latest updates. If you install a new kernel reboot.
apt-get install openssh-server
# if it's not already installed.
ifconfig
# this will show you the ip address.
# goto your other machine. Log into it with the ssh client
# you can copy and paste into putty by copying a text then right clicking. On normal Linux a way to do it is to highlight the text you
# want to copy, then past it were you want it to go (otherwise except for terminals regular windows-style copy and paste works)
sudo su -
/etc/init.d/gdm stop
apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
wget
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L...746/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run
Once it's finished installing then you can go:
/etc/init.d/gdm start
Then if everything is right in the world your GDM login will pop up.
PITA, I know.
If you don't want to go all through that then wait for the next release of UBuntu to come out and it'll have pre-packaged drivers for your card.
This should only be a problem, I beleive, if your running the G80-based nvidia cards (like the 8800GT or whatnot). Otherwise earlier Nvidia cards should work and there may be another problem.