Kinnika, Xp. is still being supported by Microsoft until such a time that win.7 takes hold. The win.7 beta was released in January for evaluation and will replace both xp and vista. The good news is that unlike vista you will not need any hardware upgrade$. Even better news it boots quicker than xp and any old pc that's running xp. will run even better on win.7
I think that computers running better with 7 than with XP is a bit conditional. I can run XP on a computer that doesn't even have enough HD space to run 7. The 7 beta I'm running right now seems more stable than my XP Pro SP3, but boot times are a bit longer and the same software seems slightly slower. I'm not put off by that at all, mind you. For the better looking interface, I'll pay the price. Well, until August, that is... I'll be working on putting together a new rig and depending on the budget, I may stick with XP.