safe to format win XP recovery console partition?!

Hey guys... I'm interested in experimenting with linux, probably a smaller distro, but I am not interested in formatting my hard drive, and seperating partitions... LUCKILY, my computer came with xp and there is one partition (about 6 gigs) for a recovery console. Am I safe to format this partition and change the file system from the fat32?? .....second question, actually has to do with linux, a bit.
If I install... say, Mandrake, or some other distro on that partition....would my computer still automatically boot to win first? (on the main partition)...im not interested in lilo for booting...just want to be able to boot into linux with a cd if I desire. thanks!