I had a bit of trouble at first but Windows XP actually runs pretty smoothly on my machine. I've had no viruses/malware, no blue screen of deaths, no spontanious reboots. It's only locked up on me once in a year - it just locked up, the mouse cursor wouldn't even move!
I admit it, XP is not the best OS and I would like to upgrade to Linux but it doesn't fully support my hardware. I would change my hardware but I use some Windows programs for which there is no good Liuux equivalent and they won't run under Wine either. I will keep trying though - Linux is constantly improving and one day the software I use might have a decent Linux version or at least run under Wine.
run VMWare with a windows install as virtual for all your games, apps, etc...
when the windows install goes bad (and it will) just reboot the vitrual Os and its back to teh day you installed it (make sure you take a snapshot as soon as you get it exactly the way you want it.