Time upgrade to XP Pro

I have to upgrade to XP Pro is what I have read and I am getting read to do it. I have been told to do a "clean install" using the NTFS file system. What are the top 3 mistakes what is the top 3 must do's to make that transition. I have 3 year old Falcon NW Mach 5 with, 800 Mhz Athlon, 256 Ram, 20 GB HD and a nVida GeForce 2 video card. This system is aging but I am hoping to give to my 12 year son who uses it for IM, games etc.

I am just hoping that my HD will still be OK and it will allow me to upgrade some hardware later if necessary. I have to say so far this machine has been stellar perfect, and still very quick. But now my key board is sticking here and there and a new 2004 sound card would pep up my Klipshch Pro Media v2 400 speakers system All the other hardware has been A with the exception of the Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM drive which I rate as B+/ A-.

Thanks in advance for your help
Gman

 

well...there aren't 3 of either.

here is a pretty good guide to follow:
http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/InstallXPPro/installxppro1.htm

 

Clean install is good,
Would run better with 512ram, but will run fine on 256, I have one pc running with 256 no problems it does have faster cpu than yours,

3 mistakes can pin down any particular 3, most people have a way of just making there own problems

careful what microsoft drivers you choose for your onboard stuff, best to download from web, like your video drivers, sound, lan

I have loaded xp on few dozen pc clean installs, and upgrade, had no problems, aside from bad cdrom one time, and the first SATA HDD had wrong drivers after figured that out all was good