I disagree.

There are lots of games, applications, and hardware drivers that need a "real" XP system. I tried to make those work in Windows 7, in Microsoft Virtual PC, in VirtualBox, and in VMWare Player. None of those four environments yielded satisfactory compatibility and performance for the things I want to do in XP. The performance of 3d games in these virtual machines is laughable. I'm very happy that my system allows me to dual boot.

Dual Boot doesn't have any problems if you set it up correctly. You can have your XP install completely independent from anything else on this computer, on its own partition, separated from everything else. The only thing that can happen is that something destroys your boot sector, but then you're screwed no matter if you use single or double boot.

Personally, since I tend to switch between XP and 7 often, I set the two OSs up in a way that they use the same installed programs and personal data. That takes a bot of work, doesn't work for every program, and creates problems with Win7 restore points, but it's worth it for me. I'm currently using Opera in XP. It uses the same settings, bookmarks, speed dial, etc. as my Win7 version. Any updates applied in one system will automatically be carried over to the other one. It's pretty convenient actually.

offtopic question. Why not just use portable versions of the apps that have them? Opera offers one from within the regular installer and that's what I use.

Again you fail to make any worthwhile point and try and cover up for it with insults, which naturally only makes it all seem weaker than it did already. If you want to argue AMD's superiority then go look at some benchmarks and get back to me with something more than pipe dreams.

I'd like it to be true. But it's not.

I have been trying to install xp with 7 already been installed and it has turned out to be a pain. I got to the point where I can choose either OS at boot but if I am restarting the from 7 and I choose to boot to xp, the first try will fail. It will reboot after showing win xp logo for a second. Then if I choose xp again, it says there was a hardware change or something and will let me choose several ways to boot it. All of them will work. Same thing happens when I go from xp to 7. Any ideas why?

Not really ... but it's usually recommended to install the _older_ OS first anyway, for improved compatibility. Win7 knows and recognizes an existing XP installation. XP however has no idea what an existing Win7 installation might be and how to deal with it.

Alternatively, you can scrap the Windows bootloader, and keep the systems even more independent by using xOSL (or a Linux bootloader). But that requires a bit more work.

I think I've seen tutorials for installing XP last, but I have to say I haven't paid much attention to them, since I've never had a reason to do it this way.

Edit: How and where exactly did you install XP?

I just got a new computer and win 7 was pre-installed...

I installed it on a separate partition. Win 7 is 64 bit, xp 32 bit.

Basically tried to follow this method - http://www.pronetworks.org/forums/install-windows-xp-in-dual-boot-with-pre-installed-windows-7-t112568.html