Hardware Assisted Virtualization

Doh, i see.. i missed a few in the comparison:
Compare AMD Processors for Desktops: AMD Phenom?, AMD Athlon? FX, AMD Athlon? X2 Dual-Core, AMD Athlon?, and AMD Sempron? Processor

Bummer...

There is a very easy way to work around this limitation. Don't use the Microsoft virtualization tools.

Instead, use either VMWare Player 3.0 (free) or Sun VirtualBox (free). Both of these can run without hardware virtualization. And they run a whole heck of a lot faster and have better support for operating systems not produced by Microsoft.

I really shouldn't have said "don't bother with software based"... I was making an assumption that the XP Mode would allow you to do things like game, etc.. which i really don't have a clue on how well it works. I'm just jaded by some old software i used... pparks1 makes a good point. For general computing VMWare is quite awesome.

I think that I'm just going to stick with my dual boot. The only problem with that is having to reboot on occassion. Most of what I need will work in W7 anyway. Actually, the only thing that comes to mind that won't is an Intel Play microscope that I have, but it won't work in XP x64 either, it has to run on x32.

I good thing about this discussion is that I have learned that I won't have to spend so much to buy a second copy of W7 for my secondary rig, it seems that the differences that I need or want aren't that much less in Home Premiuim.

pparks1 said:

Instead, use either VMWare Player 3.0 (free) or Sun VirtualBox (free). Both of these can run without hardware virtualization. And they run a whole heck of a lot faster and have better support for operating systems not produced by Microsoft.

I haven't tried VMWare, but I have tried SunVB, which has major issues with USB and crashed my system (BSOD) repeatedly.

Is there a comparo between XPmode and VMWare somewhere? I only have a couple of programs that need XP.

There are a number of returns on Google for this, but here is something close to home:

Windows XP compatability mode Vs VMWARE

Excellent, thanks!

Looks like XPmode will be perfect for me. I only have a couple of 16 bit databases I need to run, no nix boxes or anything graphics hungry (that's what 7 is for).

Our VMLite XP Mode works fine without requiring hardware assisted virtualization:

http://www.vmlite.com

Free download is available