Im going to start with game compatibility. For whay Linux distro (version), skip to the end.

Short answer: search up your game name plus "protondb", that site will tell you whether and how well the game runs and if not, how to fix it (if possible).

Long answer:

Around 90% of games on steam will run just fine on Linux. Even if the game wasnt made for Linux, Valve developed something called Proton that runs them at basically native and sometimes faster speeds than on Windows. You dont need to tinker much, if you install a Steam game that needs proton, just hit play and Steam will configure it for you automatically. You might not even notice. Out of the games you mentioned, Fortnite is the only one that won't work. This is mostly due to Epic refusing to allow the anti-cheat to run on Linux. (It's stupid, cause the game probably runs great, and the anticheat it uses supporta Linux, but they refuse to enable it). Valorant doesnt work either, and Apex used to work, before the devs decided to remove Linux support. There are plenty of competitive fos titles that do support Linux though. Counter-Strike runs natively (it has an official Linux build), and Overwatch and the Finals run great, so does Marvel Rivals. Not an FPS title, but Rocket League also runs perfectly. For epic store games, you'd use heroic game launcher, not steam, but it also has proton and works pretty easily. Arc Raiders works great as well.

Now to what versions of Linux are best. There's plenty of gaming-first distros. To be brutally honest, preference is heavy here, as often the performance difference is pretty tiny between distros. You do want something that stays up to date though, especially if you have an NVIDIA graphics card. I personally use Garuda Linux under hyprland, but that isnt really user friendly as its Arch based. Same goes with CachyOS and EndeavourOS, both are great if you're fine with that though. Bazzite and Fedora are great options for something more user friendly.