WinXP and Video Cards

Hi,
I am a gamer who is thinking of upgrading the OS from Win98 SE to WinXp Pro. I am only considering this for two reasons:
1) I wish to upgrade to the ATI 9700, or other card in the very near future, and I understand the Microsoft is not "allowing" new cards to support Win98 any longer (something about the WHQL no longer being accepted for 98, only ME, XP and 2000). I suppose I could go with a G4 4600 with the inevitable price-drop when the 9700's come out, but this would be just a delaying tactic.

2) I was told that Win98SE only uses a maximum of 128 MB ram per application. Does this mean what I think it means?

Do any of you have any insight to offer on this?

System:
P4 2.2
Asus P4S533
512 MB DDR 2700
SB Audigy X-Gamer
GeForce 3 (non-Ti).

Hey man...........I use to use 98Lite for years.........I got my new system and I started using XP Pro............It's great man.........It runs fine in games.........Now all the new cards are coming out with drivers for XP that work perfect as 98 and better.........I would sugggest upgrading.........Plus........98 only uses about 256mb - 512mb I hear........Anymore is useless..........Xp is so fast and easy to use to.........

go for XP, with all the new drivers written for it, its becoming a great gaming OS...

Win 98 is horrible at managing any memory over 256MB's. That stick you have will work great with XP.

actually, win98 prolly isnt using the other 256mb of ram at all.

get XP, u wont be sorry. trust me, its the bast M$ has ever done. just disable some of the services, and skin the hell outta the GUI

ya, xp is pretty good. It runs great if you have the system resources available to push it.

No less than 256MB RAM, though, regardless of technology. I like Win2k, but that is just me.