I choose Linux over Winblowz.. cuz it blows windows away as far as rendering and such... but, since we speaking M$.. I'd tell ya to stick with XP. As for gaming goes, use FAT32 for your FS.. if you use NTFS.. for some odd reason NO EA Games, games will play. ALL my games play & run perfect on XP(FAT32). For the issue of XP d/ling slow, you can disable that. For further detail into XP, refer to
xp-erience
Oh.. and for you monkeys =P
http://www.ihatewindowsxp.com