Thanks for the comments, folks.
Yes, the Mobo does recognise the drive - we can get it to work fine with Win 98. I've looked at the Maxtor website but they don't give much help.
The viaarena link looks worth following up on.
I guess what I really want is someone to give a one line solution that will allow XP to run without a blue screen of death.
\wishfulthinkingmode off