I finally got Mac OS X’s Boot Camp installed and running. I ran into a few snafus, but overall, it was a relatively easy process. Here’s how I did it.
Obtaining Valid Licensed Copy of Windows XP
I own several computers at home, two that I’ve built off parts from Newegg. I bought valid copies of Windows XP (SP 1a OEM versions) for both of these boxen. However, about a year or two ago, I reformatted both those boxen and have been running linux on them both (one is my main mythtv server and the other is a diskless mythtv-client that boots over PXE). I chalked these purchases up to just a loss, since I did run Windows on them for a short time. I had activated both of them long ago, and was under the impression that they were tied to the CPU forever. I finally called Microsoft yesterday to get the real scoop, and was told that it is possible to transfer a license to another computer, as long as that computer doesn’t have windows XP anymore. I qualify for sure.
However, since Boot Camp requires a Windows XP SP2 CD, though (not SP1a), and you cannot install SP1a and then update afterwards, I thought I’d go ahead and purchase a new OEM/Retail XP CD. After a little research, I found out about slipstreaming a Windows XP install CD. This means you can burn your own copy of the XP CD, with the updated SP2 (and any drivers you want). After evaluating whether it was worth about $140 worth of my time to pursue (you can buy an SP2 CD for $140 as an OEM purchase), I decided to give it a whirl. I followed the instructions, burnt my new SP2 CD, and I was ready to go.
Boot Camp Install
I fired up Boot Camp, and after resizing my partition, got an error about the drive not being able to verified:
I needed the Mac OS X CD to repair, and that was at home, so after another day of waiting, I was able to boot up and repair the drive. I simply booted the OS X CD and chose to verify and repair the drive. See Using Disk Utility and fsck to resolve startup issues or perform for more information.
I then started the Boot Camp installation, and after about an hour of installing, was good to go!
Installing the Mac Hardware Drivers
After booting into XP, I couldn’t figure out how to Eject the disk (I had heard you could use the button, but perhaps not yet). I finally had to click on the drive and do File -> Eject to eject the disk.
The drivers installed fine — very cool, very slick. Once it restarted, the resolution was fantastic!
Lo and behold the first thing I did was click on that USB Video device, and the blue screen of death grabbed a hold of me. p.s. I remembered why I switched. 
Other than that, it’s been going fabulous. It is a smokin’ machine!
