Or use hardware a year or two old. If your hardware is bleeding edge you’re going to have a hard time. Or if you depend on some peripheral that’s not “mainstream”. The thing windows always, always had going for it was driver support. Linux never had that so it’s always been a game of catch up.

My laptop is about five years old.

And if it doesn't work, check again with a distro that uses a newer Kernel.

That can often make all the difference, but it's not intuitive for Windows people who are used to install hardware drivers.

Especially for hardware like new Bluetooth or Wifi chips, fingerprint readers, but also when there is a new Intel or AMD CPU generation and chipset.

E.g. instead of Ubuntu or Mint, try Fedora or CachyOS. Or even Nobara or Bazzite for gaming-specific optimizations.