Nice one!!
Oh, you should know this. I think by Windows swap you mean a pagefile partition for temporary usage of HD as a RAM. But this actually possibly can slow your windows down.
The page file is used as RAM for big tasks. This means your hard drive has to access the partition and the normal disk space for windows use AND another drive for your programs for example photoshop on drive G: Extra work. So using the main windows drive as a pagefile partition is fine.
I am really not sure, search around for more on partition stuff for a lightning fast PC!
The linux partition needs a primary partition, not an extended/logical. The 12GB u have created should be primary (If its not, then redo). In short
Create two main primary partitions and the rest unallocated can be turned into logical free space for all other needs.
As for linux distribution use this quiz:
zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser
It depends on your likes and uses and needs, which distro to use.
On a personal note, my favorites till now (or what all I have exposed myself to) are:
DSL (Only 50MB with a full desktop GUI!!)
Puppy (about 300MB? full desktop)
Ubuntu (my first one and i liked it)
Edubuntu (Educational Ubuntu)
Xubuntu (For older PC's)
(I was gonna give links to the sites but u can do it urself, too much work lol)
And Kidakaka can help further. He knows about linux.