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For choosing the desktop machine itself, I would pick one of the machines under the Ubuntu Desktop Certified Hardware list for 12.04LTS. You should be able to find it with your preferred search engine.This will ensure that Ubuntu itself will run well on the desktop hardware (no weird driver issues).
I don't think there are any Ubuntu installs with ROS already installed. If you follow the groovy install instructions on the main ROS page, it's a pretty quick, painless install using package manager tools. The guide walks you right through it.
Not sure about the graphics requirements for rviz/Gazebo.