Fontastic

Here are some sites you can browse to download free fonts. Each has its own requirements for the licensing, but you can pretty much consider yourself a noncommercial venture. And anyway, font creators usually just ask for proper credit (and perhaps a copy of what you've made).

Good Fonts (hmm, server is offline? try later)
Font Freak
Da Font

One other caution: some free fonts may not work with your operating system or printer drivers. You'll just have to try them and see.

In my opinion, good type design is a subtle art, and simple is usually better, at least for body text. If you must get crazy, your headlines and titles are the place to try a wacky "display" typeface. Conventional wisdom has it that serif typefaces are easier on the eye than sans serif typefaces for long stretches, but some folks suggest that the popularity of sans-serif fonts on the web may be advancing our ability to read sans serifs with greater ease. (I think this may be a good point, but I still personally prefer serifs in print.)

Here's a site with info on classic printing typefaces (if you're into that kind of thing):

Thinking with Type

And for the true typeface connoisseur, my fave (and no way are these free):

House Industries

Fontastic bonus: I'm such a nut for type & design, I even wrote a poem in which Futura Book appears. (The canned product referred to is Sofia Blanc de Blanc, which does not employ Futura Book in its packaging but is still totally totally hot.)