Formatting/re-installing windows tips needed

Hi folks,
After doing an HP system restore on an OEM XP home P.C. many issues popped up and I've decided to "pull the goalie" and start over from scratch and switch to Win 2000 (I have the disc). I've saved my favorites, pictures, music and game saves over to my other P.C. I think I'm good to go with a format and clean install, but does anyone have any tips or see something I missed? I'm gonna do it in about an hour or as soon as I find out where my saved game files are in Rise of Nations.
Thanks

 

Thanks Robo, I already had Aida but didn't think of checking it (which I will now). Do you recommend saving the drivers to re-use them? I'm swiching from XP home to 2000 server.

 

I do have a PCI sound card but I'll back up the drivers anyways.
Good tip Robo. Thanks.

 

Also, I was going to make 2-3 partitions. (it's an 80 gig HD) A 5 gig for the OS and one or two for data,games.. Is this the way to go?

 

Thanks again Robo, gonna dive in right now.