You'll probably need to fdisk it, too, to remove the NTFS partition(s) if you install an OS that doesn't recognize them.
Regardless if it is necessary or not, I always blow away the old partitions and create new when reinistalling an OS, just in the event there is an error in the old partition table. It only takes like an extra 5 minutes or so (probably less) to set up new partitions, so it isn't a huge deal.