Title says it.
How? Complete newbie, never partioned, dual-booted or anything like that.
Hard Drive is... 282 size, 236 free.
How? I NEED MY TRUSTY Windows 7!
Then shrink the Windows 7 partition enough for your XP partition, boot the XP CD, create and full format the partition. If the HD is not seen by the XP CD then you'll have to provide SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD.