I have been doing fresh installs with the WinXP CD which already has SP2 in it and they go very smoothly. All that I see during the install is an extra screen that was not there on the WinXP w/SP1 CD.
The only thing that is annoying is the Security Center, it keeps wanting you to add an Antivirus program. Until you do, and you update the Antivirus program, it keeps popping up the reminder balloons.
Richard