This was true in 2010. I use to have a USB wifi adapter that was specifically meant to make sure linux would always work. I lost that adapter years ago.

I can't remember the last time I tried a distro that didn't just work on a random computer with a random wifi but it has been several years now.

Nvidia cards on the other hand...last year I had to try about 10 distros before I found something that wasn't a huge pain in the ass.