I really don't have much advice except to say that whenever I read about people having problems with Xp, it's almost always those that are running Xp with the Service Pack 2 !!
I have had Win XP Pro since 2000 and installed SP1 when it came out......... i have the SP2 on CD from Microsoft but am reluctant to install it as my system works fine.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.