Dual Boot or Virtualize WinXP in Vista?

I bought two WD 640 Black's to raid them and then dual-boot XP32 and Vista 64. Since then I tried virtualbox and think it's kind of cool. From a performance standpoint would virtualizing XP through Vista be advised over dual-booting (if not forgetting Vista completely)?

If you want to game, or use high end graphics dual boot, if you just need to run a couple of legacy apps, use a VM. I prefer the VM approach if it's workable.

Just to clarify, I wouldn't be able to virtualize Vista64 in a XP32 host right?

I'm not sure tbh. I don't /think/ so, but it would be easy enough to try. There wouldn't be too much point in it, as you'd lose the benefits of using a 64bit O/S in a 32bit client.

no, 64bit vm can only be run from 64bit OS. However, keep in mind that USB devices are unsupported in VM as is Direct3D, DirectX and openGL. So NO GAMES work. With that much diskspace, it dual boot.

I might not even load Vista, but just XP. So far I have only missed the programs I was able to run in XP. Outside of a colorful desktop, Vista lacks anything that I would need to chose it over XP...

Out of curiosity, what programs haven't worked?

I think it more of my familiarity with WindowsXP. The only thing I can think of would be games, but I don't even really have time for those right now. My Dragon Naturally Speaking isn't supported in 64-bit, so that is important. I liked having a stripped down version of XP being snappy and responsive. I'm not saying Vista is terrible or anything, I just haven't found myself really pushing the 64-bit button, outside of installing 4gb of ram with a 640mb video card.

Maybe I just got a kick out of spending hours on tweaking my xp installation, and I just miss that lol. So, basically Vista has worked fine for me right out of the box, and I'm mad haha j/k. I did like having all of my DVD-backup stuff integrated right into the installation image, but some of those programs as well aren't able to work as intended.