Yeah, it
really depends on the hardware you're planning to do this on. The newest machine I've seen XP run on without major issues was a Haswell system from around 2013 or so. Depending on the specs, a machine like that might not even be terrible even by today's standards. If it's decent, then you could easily have a more than usable experience in both Windows XP and Windows 10 when it comes to performing basic tasks, and you might even be able to have a fairly decent gaming experience depending on what you play. Of course, this would still be 8 year old hardware at this point, so don't expect it to blow your socks off or anything (like, don't expect a playable experience in something like Cyberpunk 2077, for example). And obviously, not every machine from this era will run XP without a hitch. If you really want to attempt this and if you plan on going the route of hunting for parts, do your research first!
If you are serious, then here is a bit of advice from my own experience over the years:
Windows XP is
very picky about your system's SATA configuration. It may take a little bit of work, but you should be able to get it to install under AHCI if your have drivers for it. You will more than likely need to slipstream SATA drivers into the installation ISO to even boot into the first stage of Windows setup. I even had to do this when I installed XP on my old ThinkPad T400 from 2008, so this is by no means uncommon.
If you want to use NVMe, then good luck with that!
Speaking of SSDs though: if you're planning on installing XP on one, I would highly recommend looking into some TRIM software, as XP by itself has absolutely no support for it whatsoever. Otherwise, you'll be cutting your SSD's lifespan short!
If you can, I would recommend using the x64 version of XP, since it will be able to utilize all of your CPU's cores and more than 3.5GB RAM. But even if this isn't an option for you (or even if you just want Win16 support without the use of DOSBox) then the good 'ol 32-bit version should still work just fine. You may also be limited to a certain version by which drivers are available for your hardware, so again, do some research first!
I would also suggest using Windows XP Professional if possible. You should still be able to use Home Edition if you can get XP running at all, and you may even be largely okay with it depending on your needs. However, you might also end up finding that your options for certain things are a bit more limited than what you may be used to. Even something as seemingly simple as changing file/folder permissions is more restrictive in XP Home Edition. In general, XP Home is more limited than its newer home edition counterparts (but like I said, this might not even be an issue for you depending on your needs).
Lastly, XP does not support UEFI in any capacity. Make sure your system has legacy BIOS support, or XP will never run on it. Period.
If you do decide to give this a shot this, then I wish you the best of luck! You
might be able to get XP to run on something newer than a Haswell-era machine, however I would never say for sure without seeing it happen first. In my opinion, I don't think the potential nightmare of hunting down XP-compatible drivers would be worth it (I've been though that hell enough times already). But don't let that discourage you if you really do want to try this. In fact, I'd love to see it happen if you could get it working. Just be prepared to spend hours getting things to work, and don't be surprised if they don't end up working in the end.
