For Intel, there are only open source drivers. They are called nvidia-current for nvidia and fglrx for ATI. If your check turns up that your hardware supports OpenGL 2.0 (which most do), you can try the proprietary drivers. Ubuntu comes with open source versions, which are not bad, but generally a step behind the proprietary drivers released by the graphic card manufacturers (which are often referred to as binary drivers or proprietary drivers). There are multiple video drivers for each chip generation for Linux.

To be able to run OpenGL libraries, you also need a driver which supports them. Remember that these only say which version the hardware supports. GeForce 7 series if you have a GeForce 7600 GS NVidia graphic cards - here you have to click to the page for the correct generation, e.

Then go to Wikipedia's comparison tables for video cards to find out the OpenGL version your card supports. Read through the list until you have seen something about ATI or nVidia or one of Intel's models. This lists everything connected over PCI or PCI express, including the video card. I am afraid you'll have to open the command line of your first day of Linux (don't worry, happened to me too).