That's a really similar story to mine. My problem was that Vista ran like butts on my laptop (the graphics card died), so I went to Mint. Then, my XP install on my desktop started acting up, so I figured that I might as well drop Mint on there as well. Needless to say, both have been a hell of a lot more stable, and most of the programs I used on XP are either on Linux or can be ran easily through WINE. Linux is great for old computers/general use stuff, but I'm still gonna install a Windows partition for games and stuff when I get a new desktop (hopefully soon; this seven year old Dell's just about had it).