The official release of Mandrake 7.1 automagically detected and configured itself to *use* my HPT366 ATA-66 controller on my motherboard. However, there is a distinct difference from *using* ATA66/100 controllers (in PIO or ATA33 modes) and using them in an optimized level (ATA66 ot ATA100 modes).
The current beta of LM7.2 doesn't automatically do this, but I assume it will upon official release.
I really haven't played around with other recent distros enough to comment on them.
-SUO