I've been using Fedora for the better part of the last year for my Linux server. I like it because its based on Redhat, which is a server distro and (not to say other distros don't) I've had AMAZING uptime. The only thing that takes Linux down is a power outage or myself.
I would suggest for a server only booting as high as runlevel 3. No GUI to take up additional system resources. Really, I have VNC installed as a service that starts automatically on boot so I don't even have to touch the machine itself.
From my understanding, the bins will work on any machine with the same CPU architecture. If you compile on an i386, they should work on any i386, but not AMD64 or PPC, for example.
Hope this helps and best of luck.