The slack kernel should support it fine. I don't know, but I would expect that they have a smp kernel aviable by default. Also if you do want to upgrade to 2.6 kernel keep in mind that there are differences in how modules and such are handled and you'll have to find some docs on slackware on the internet and make sure that your going to have a system that is prepared to use 2.6 kernels. It shouldn't be anything to painfull.. but if all your hardware is supported and such there probably isn't any real need to upgrade to 2.6 at this point.
The SATA driver support of your Nforce4 may or may not be complete. It depends on what sort of kernel version your dealing with. I don't know that much about slackware's specific setup. This sort of thing is the reason why Nvidia motherboards should be avoided for Linux. Other manufacturers like Via, AMD, or Intel, do a much better job. But of course it's best to use what you have versus what you don't have.
If the nforce4 supports PATA-style emulation (like if your able to install Windows XP without having to have a driver disk) then it should work irregardless. You'd be able to install and such, but if you want best performance you'd probably have to upgrade the kernel yourself (and edit the fstab and such. For a seasoned slackware user this shouldn't be a big deal)
This is the latest-and-greatest support for sata in Linux.
http://linux.yyz.us/sata/ All the gory details. But I don't know what specific kernel Slackware will use or how modern it's SATA support is.
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