What kind of distribution is a standard z distribution?

Answer 1

It is the normalised Gaussian distribution.

To speak of a 'standard z' distribution is somewhat redundant because a z-score is already standardised. A z-score follows a normal or Gaussian distribution with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. It's these specific parameters (this mean and standard deviation) that are considered 'standard'. Speaking of a z-score implies a standard normal distribution.

This is important because the shape of the normal distribution remains the same no matter what the mean or standard deviation are. As a consequence, tables of probabilities and other kinds of data can be calculated for the standard normal and then used for other variations of the distribution.