[CentOS] Hardware RAID 10 server - reformat NTFS partition to ext3 and resize for Centos 5.5

Here's the situation. I have a dual boot machine - originally had Red Hat and Windows 2000 Pro. The NTFS partition never did seem to 'get along' with the Adaptec 2400A caching RAID controller. Linux always seemed to like the I2O drivers. I went from RH Enterprise to now running Centos 5.5. Works great! I really don't want the 200 gigs worth of NTFS. Can't I just run GParted from a CD, reformat the NTFS and append the space to the existing Linux partition? What will I have to do with LVM to see the expanded partion? - anything special? I've never done this before - is it really much more complicated than I've outlined here? Please advise this old simpleton. Many thanks in advance.

Ed Westphal