Hi,
I have only recently needed an uptodate working XP machine. I used to do my own custom install disks using either User Hidden's or Onepiece's update packages, sadly these authors did not take XP all the way to the end. This time I got lazy and thought your build was about right for my needs. I installed it on real, not virtual, hardware, the install went without incident and and it runs quite well. The machine was an old Compaq B1800 (Dothan era!) laptop without usb boot support. I used the Plop boot manager on a CD to boot to the install USB stick. There is a special version of PLOP that just boots USB and nothing else. I don't know whether you were aware of PLOP, it was not mentioned in the Readme.
At this time I must admit that I first tried installiung it with the driver packs (as an experiment) - they were not very useful. i did the install again after removing the driver packs and installing all the last updates of the HP supplied drivers in silent mode.
As a matter of interest, which process did you use to get XP up to date?
Thanks for a great build
Bob