Booting XP cd not possible?

I just spent about an hour trying to downgrade my laptop with Windows 7 to Windows XP, using the old fashioned way, but discovered that Windows 7 doesn't allow the setup from XP to run? I cannot manage to start my XP cd over the harrdisc boot.

The reason I want to downgrade to XP again is the age of my laptop, I had several driver issues (graphics drivers not installing properly, drivers not updated for Win7) and now I simply want back to XP because my laptop has ran much better with that OS.

Is this intended? Am I supposed to simply discard Windows XP? Because honestly, I don't have the money to buy a new laptop and Windows 7 doesn't work properly on this laptop.
Windows Vista is plain failure and I never had any trouble with XP.

Perhaps there is a way to get around Microsoft's attempts to get me from re-installing Windows XP? I mean, I do have both Windows 7 and Windows XP legally...

Any help would be much appreciated.

ps. I am writing this on a barely functioning laptop, because of Windows 7.

How to install Win XP on a Fujitsu Siemens using the recovery disk.

Exactly what I did. But I didn't get an option to launch the Windows XP cd.
Set the cd/dvd drive at first priority, but it simply skips that drive somehow, as if the cd's not containing a boot option, while I recently used the same disc to install a "clean" hard disc.
If nothing works, I might have to put in another hard disc, but I'd prefer to keep it as cheap as possible...
I am just a student...

maybe you have problem with you CD/DVD drive ..
have you try with another CD/DVD with booting option ?