Good luck and if you are wanting do this you need to buy a copy or two of Win 7 NOW.

I was kinda looking for a new desktop this month to replace the 4 year old Dell I am using (been upgraded along the way but its still older) and I could not find one new system out there selling with anything but Win 8.

Once you get the XP machine, plug the MB full of RAM and a new faster hard drive, and install Win 7 on it. That should help a lot. Then put Win 7 on your Son's new computer once he gets tired of Win 8.

LOL my XP 'puter has 2 gigs of ram (full) and 512 of V-ram (best card available that'll fit the AGP MB).
He's already got a dual core machine with a 2 gig of v-card and 4 gigs of RAM, maybe I should just get him a new OS and get ME a faster machine.

I kinda hate to do that though, it's only 10 years old and there's plenty of life left in the old girl.....

Ten years old is about five years too much... but enjoy!

Scott,
I had XP and Win7 and upgraded to Win 8 when it launched, is not the fastest but the most consistent and overall I agree that is the fastest.. It boots quick and antivirus integrated makes it pretty acceptable, no more slow boots due to antivirus.

So in those benchmarks Win8 lost by a split hair but I think for the general population Win 8 is the absolute winner.