So, I have no idea how/why this doesn't want to ever work... I'd like to have XP dual boot with Window's 7. Yes, I know how I do that, thankyou.

What seems to be the problem is that whenever xp is installed, it will never install the ethernet drivers, and I can't download them from hp cause my computer has downloadable content for only vista and 7.

But, it seems to install perfectly fine with the ethernet and internet boots properly (like it should) when I install with sun virtualbox.

well ever since my last restore, my ethernet driver has failed everytime, and i did the uninstall/re-install troubleshoot, and the update but it still failed

If you use a NIC, what card is it?

If you're using USB, switch to CAT-5.

it's on-board nukka.

What model is your motherboard (as displayed by CPU-Z)

iirc, that mobo has a Realtek lan card. Check out Realtek's site for drivers.