XP recovery or fresh install help

I recently decided to install a vlited vista, and apparently overwrote the recovery partition on the hard drive. After using Vista for a short time, I think I'd be happier with XP, as performance is more important than eye candy. Is there any way to recover the recovery partition or just install a fresh copy of XP? I have tried about three different ways of installing xp via usb (hpboot, dos boot, some german program pemo, and I also took apart my external hard drive and tried to use a cd-rom) and all have come up with the same message saying to remove the media and hit any key to restart the computer. I've almost given up and am hoping for someone to give some advice or point me to a fool proof method of installing xp via usb.

Also while I have an open thread can anyone comment on OS X on the AAO? Are all components 100% working after replacing stock Wifi.

Thanks

 

Worked fine for me (installed XP to a 150L )... Good luck

 

Excellent resource, horribly boring and slow. Nonetheless its been the only tutorial that has successfully allowed me to install XP on my AAO. Thanks to you and Duncan I am now running my nlited XP which is much faster than the original. Thanks again!