I might check out GRUB4DOS. It's pretty flexible, and I have it successfully dual booting DOS and Windows 98. It supports booting Windows NT (i.e. Windows XP), but ironically doesn't support booting plain DOS as well (it can, of course, but not as easily as Win 9x, Win NT, or Linux it seems). It also has the ability to chain load booting floppy or bootable CDs even if your system doesn't directly support booting CDs.

Keep in mind also that all bootable CDs are not created equal. My Socket 7 machine will happily boot Windows 98 CDs, but not newer Ultimate Boot CDs or, say, newer Ubuntu CDs. At one point I knew what the reason and difference was but it escapes me at the moment. That said, I would certainly expect a P3 system to boot nearly any bootable CD.

Do you already have a bootable CD? Which one are you using?

Nic-93 wrote:

...looking for a way to make it dual boot windows xp and 98SE but the problem is that i cant seem to make the cd rom boot into a live cd at all

Not all Windows 98SE CD's are bootable. I have a boxed retail version of 98SE and you have to boot from the floppy that came with it in order to install Windows from the CD. There are some OEM Windows 98SE CD's that are bootable though.
The XP CD should be bootable. If that one isn't booting either, make sure your BIOS is set to boot from CD.

Jorpho wrote:

Do you already have a bootable CD? Which one are you using?

im treid GAG on that to get it booting up and where planning on getting it to be my main boot gui

Nic-93 wrote:

im treid GAG on that to get it booting up and where planning on getting it to be my main boot gui

You are failing to make much sense here.

So you downloaded gag4_10.zip from http://gag.sourceforge.net/download.html and burned CDROM.ISO to a CD, right? Does your burned CD-ROM have the folders "devel", "docs", "linux", and "[BOOT]", or just "cdrom.iso" ?

Yeah, thats how i did so, burned cdrom.iso to the cd-rw as in burned the contents onto it, might need to check on that again.

Is your computer properly set up to boot from CD-ROM, or for that matter can it actually boot from CD-ROM? If the CD-ROM can't be set as a boot option in the BIOS (in the options for boot order), then you'll need to use a boot floppy...

yawetaG wrote:

Is your computer properly set up to boot from CD-ROM, or for that matter can it actually boot from CD-ROM? If the CD-ROM can't be set as a boot option in the BIOS (in the options for boot order), then you'll need to use a boot floppy...

CUSL2-C definitely has an option in its BIOS to boot from CD-ROM, I used that board in the past.

tayyare wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

Is your computer properly set up to boot from CD-ROM, or for that matter can it actually boot from CD-ROM? If the CD-ROM can't be set as a boot option in the BIOS (in the options for boot order), then you'll need to use a boot floppy...

CUSL2-C definitely has an option in its BIOS to boot from CD-ROM, I used that board in the past.

Hey, i mistaked the board name but it was asus cusl2 acpi, but can i update to a new enough bios to allow cd-rom booting?

Now that this is related to some cd-rom troubels now another weird thing is happening on the bios cant find the optical drive at all, it finds the floppy drive fine and the cd rom drive aint existing, it worked before, anyone know how to get that working again? i also changed ide cable.

Nic-93 wrote:

Now that this is related to some cd-rom troubels now another weird thing is happening on the bios cant find the optical drive at all, it finds the floppy drive fine and the cd rom drive aint existing, it worked before, anyone know how to get that working again? i also changed ide cable.

Did you change the IDE cable before or after it stopped working properly? If you did it before, then your replacement IDE cable is faulty or not plugged in correctly.

More information on the hardware would also be welcome.

Nic-93 wrote:

tayyare wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

Is your computer properly set up to boot from CD-ROM, or for that matter can it actually boot from CD-ROM? If the CD-ROM can't be set as a boot option in the BIOS (in the options for boot order), then you'll need to use a boot floppy...

CUSL2-C definitely has an option in its BIOS to boot from CD-ROM, I used that board in the past.

Hey, i mistaked the board name but it was asus cusl2 acpi, but can i update to a new enough bios to allow cd-rom booting?

CD-ROM boot option is a thing since socket 7 boards, and I really don't believe there would be an Asus PII / PIII board with no option to boot from CD-ROM in its BIOS.

wait what??? this is confuseing.
now the bios found the cd.rom drive anyways, situation is cleared.