mini distro mini network

[maxpolaris]

I want to set up a networking lab of mini distros to experiment with to improve my understanding of networking and internetworking concepts.
I was thinking of 3 to 6 virtual machines on either 1 or more networks. Does anyone have any suggestions
for distros' like Damn Small Linux, Tiny Core, Slitaz, FreeNAS or Puppy. I have a dual core amd64 and 8 gigs of memory.

Is this practical? Any tips pointers or caveats would be much appreciated.