I don't see any problems with your plan to run XP. There were some very rare pc games released < 2009 that require Vista, mostly because MS was trying to encourage Vista adoption not because they truely used DX10. Games like Shadowrun or Halo2 (PC).

I also vote XP. My c2q runs xp 32 bit with a 4:3 monitor. I much prefer that over the hassles on a modern pc and black bars.

You may as well just use your modern pc for anything Vista and beyond imho. Could just be that I'm getting older and Vista still seems like it just came out though, but I have no nostalgia for that era (short of a few good games) and a new pc rarely has issue with running them.

The only drawback to XP 32bit today is browsing.. but a simple solution is to just dual boot with any Linux distro you want and browse from there. I have 8 gigs in mine available to linux, it's pretty useful even today.

Thanks for the suggestions 😁

Going to try the Xeon/LGA771 route on this build first as i have just secured a X5460 which i know others have had success running on this board...hopefully this can keep this machine useful as a main machine for a bit longer.

I have a Optiplex 330 which i have just brought back to life which is probably a better fit for an XP build, got a E6420 in this at the moment - but i know the Q8400 also works in this, so i may well dump that in here 🤣 Only shame is that its a SFF build so the Live! wont fit...

or i could have another crack at a SKT370 build... too many options!

I adopted xp in 2009 and don't remember issues. Win 2000 was the old one then.

Well this happened today - Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

So I guess that settles it... 😁

I would use an SSD with Win XP or higher.