The problem is that no one really knows when Win 64 (Longhorn, same product) is going to be released. If you can get your hands on a cheap OEM Win XP, that will probably be the best bet for now.
my sis got a dell and i burned her xp reinstall cd and put it in my computer that i had reformatted
the computer starts but doesn't recognize the disc and won't install, it just stays on a black screen with compaq in red
The reason that it doesn't install is that you don't have the computer to boot from the CD ROM first. If you have two optical devices, figure out which one loads first and use that one.