Pre vista formatting?

Alright, I've been meaning to do this for a while. Due to space restrictions,
I need to wipe my computer. Some of you may have heard of File wiping, it's
basically just formatting your computer down to a shell. I need to do this.
I'm running out of memory, and I'm about to purchase Windows Vista. So my
question is: If I totally wipe my computer (No Windows, no programs, no
anything as far as I know), will I be able to just pop in Vista's disk and
start the setup? I've never actually done this, and after reading a little
bit on what it takes to format the computer I'm skeptical that it'll work
properly.

So, Completely wipe the computer and still be able to install Vista? Or does
formatting do just as good? Help me, oh computer wizards.