Oh absolutely, the machine I am on now (soon to be old machine) runs an AMD CPU, with an SIS chipset (not the greatest for GNU/Linux) yet I was diligent, and . . . it works! Have been running Feisty Fawn for almost a year, no major problems. I suppose there was a "luck" factor there, as I bought this hardware without researching into whether or not it was suitable for GNU/Linux.

The new machine however I carefully researched the hardware for and, no problems there either.

Now, I am not like evangelizing for Intel products, as you can indeed run GNU/Linux on hardware from other manufacturers yet I do find that Linus' statement regarding their chipsets is accurate, based on my own rather smooth experience with the 945GC Express.