For what it's worth, 'XP Home Edition' works well for me, but...
1) Intel PC Cam no longer usable.
2) External USB modem as above.
XP doesn't like sites that offer downloads that may utilise driver upgrades from either 98SE or Win2000. I attempted this once and ignored the warnings. Bad move, and I ended up scrubbing the time consuming downloads despite the recommendations that these sites promote being XP compatible.