There are not only codec packs on free-codecs.com fortunately
Euromix's right, codec packs are for lazy people reeeeally

But XP codec Pack is good of course

or at least when you're a real newbie and want to watch movies and just don't know anything about these codecs etc. it's a great choice 'cause it's not full of unnecessary and incompatible things you won't need for a simple movie playback. This goes for the most common video/audio encoded types.
About FFDShow: the 20041012 version is the most stable which is the most important thing. Also it has SSE and SSE2 builds. That's why Cole's Codec Pack includes this also, etc.
And i like Cole's CP too, but wouldn't suggest for newbie movie playback. It's rather a codec-collection, and very wisely built.
But freecodecsnewbie, i still don't know what's your real intention. There isn't a thing on free-codecs.com from what i can say: download this and never come back