Died & won't start

A couple of months back, my 1994 Mazda 626 died on the interstate & hasn't started since. My fiancee was driving it. She said she was just driving as normal when she looked down & the RPMs were at zero. Prior to this when I'd drive it, it would be touchy when being started. Sometimes it would semi-start, sputter then die. It would not immediately re-start. I'd have to let it sit for a minute & make sure everything had stopped (including the power antenna). Then I'd try again making sure it got a good rollover & start & it'd be okay. There were also acouple of times whe she was driving it & it would just die on her at a stop light. Eventually after a bit it would start up.

My neighbor, a mechanic, after listening to it, said there was no compression & therefore the timing belt. Well, after spending a day & a half getting down to the timing belt, I find out that is not it. My neighbor came & looked at it again (now that it was all taken apart) and he now says it must be the distributor. Does this sound correct?

Also, when he was messing with the distributor, he did not mark the timing. I am getting a used distributor off of ebay. Can anyone tell me how to time it?