Questions from a Raidin' newbFollow

Ok so I should be hitting lvl 40 by the end of this next week and I wont be 70 for some time but I am going to be a raiding newb and I wanna be prepared the best I can when I start. I have plowed through many a threads to get all the info I could but most of it is lvl 70's talking in detail about the raids. So if I am asking to much info here just flame on I wont care...I just wanna get to do heroics one day and wanna get a head start. I am positive about what build I am gonna use because I am comfortable with my class and plan on learning him more as I play but here is what I am confused about ...In what order should I tackle raids (I dont even know them all) and what gear and stats should I have for all of them in order....I know its a big question but if someone could post like a PRE-RAID FAQ and just post a helpful link or even just tell me what i should do on this thread it would be GOLD!!!

for a graphical representation of this try googling "wow attunement chart". although these diagrams are for attunements to raids and in iteself not strictly up-to-date any more, it does give you a means to understand how Blizzard expects you to progress through raid content etc...