MacBook: Reinstall Leopard & Restore - TimeMachine Migration or Assistant

Hey all I have one of the first Intel macbooks. It's starting to struggle these days with all the junk I have loaded onto it and I believe I need to clean it up and start again.

I'm fine with installing a fresh copy of leopard but, I would like to know what is the best way to reload my data on after? TimeMachine or Migration Assistant?

The thing that I am worried about is after I install a fresh copy of leopard and then run either TM or MA it just going to load my old system back to the way it is now (like sytem files and folders that is probaly cloging it up that I don't need).

The only things that I really need are.
*Mail (emails settings)
*iTunes (Music, vids, backups of phone, etc)
*iPhoto (all my pics and vids)
*Some garage band stuff
*Download & Document folders
*Applications (I don't want them all just certain ones)

How does TM or MA work will it just load absolutly everything on? Including system files and all that stuff or will it just load files and folders that I select.

I really don't want to go through all my applications and reinstall them and reconfigure them like I had to back in the days when I used windows. That process use to take me endless hours...

Any help would be fantastic.

Cheers

I too want what liberty has stated above, with a few additions

1. Will I be able to get my RSS feeds back? I use Mail.app for my feeds
2.On installing from Leopard disks[shipped with MB], I will return to 10.5.5. Currently I am running on 10.5.8. Will this create any problems with restore via time machine? Also I have the combo update for 10.5.7 and the 10.5.8 update too. To get back to 10.5.8 after re-install will these two be enough or should I get 10.5.6?
3. I dont want Time Machine put back all the applications, only those that I want...is that possible?