most Mac-compatible linux distribution
I look at this issue the other way (which may not help you at all as you mention video driver issues and you want full linux access to the GPU).

My take is "Which virtualization environment works best with the linux distributions I want to use?"

For me the answer is VMware Fusion, then VirtualBox and lastly Parallels. And I really haven't heard any significant issues with all three of these in the last several months.

The reason is that my time is so much more precious than whatever marginal increase in speed I would have gotten installing linux natively. If and when I need huge performance I deploy to co-located linux service where you can easily pick your optimal price / performance / service level.