Many (if not most) linux distros have a 'live USB' option, where you can boot into a fully functional system contained within a USB drive, without making any changes to your computer.

If all you want to do with it for now is 'playing around with it', then that would be a great solution. Lets you know how well it works on your hardware, doesn't have the slowdown issues of a VM*, doesn't require any drastic changes and has no risk of breaking anything.

*A live USB will still be a bit slower than a real installation in some respects, especially when it needs to read anything from storage, since USB storage is much slower than your hard drive.