Bofore you upgrade to XP (which might at worst spoil your computer, at best take objection to a few elderly programs) try running 98SE. I have had no problems with my USB card reader (Pentax 750Z camera). There are massive updates on the Microsoft website and these seem worth downloading. Once you have up-graded your machine make an image of the drive as I feel the days are numbered for us 98 users and the updates may be removed from Microsofts site, then we'll be in trouble.
I have used XP extensively at work. and frankly these multi GHz machines running XP seem slower than my sub-GHz machine on 98SE! I'm sure they'll render huge files quicker but they take ages to boot up and are no quicker for average tasks. My 450MHz can handle 6MB files with ease. It can handle 50MB files if I'm patient. To upgrade to 98SE with all the updates should work well. Upgrading to XP might be asking for trouble and your machine might well be slower come the end of it. Most people say avoid ME all together.
