You might want to look at these resources:

 

Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/oempreac.mspx

 

Volume Licensing Briefs

 

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/volbrief.mspx

 

I have struggled with this as well.  Even though the Dell's come preactivated, Sysprep "resets" the need to activate.  I have not tested the procedure from the first link but even Microsoft says if you want Sysprep to run smoothly, to switch to volume licensing.

 

I hope this helps a little bit.

Thanks raynor17.

 

I actually figured it out and have deployed my desktops under my first standard image.

 

I read that the product activation info for both XP and Office changes after the major SPs are installed.

 

What I do is take each machine as it comes from Dell, activate Office, update XP and Office to the latest patches.

 

Then I save the WPA.DBL file, which preserves the Windows Activation, and the OPA11.DAT file, which preserves the Office Activation.  I've found that I also need to save the registration registry key for Office.

 

Anyhow, now I can take my standard image, roll it out to that machine, then I simply restore back the two files above and the regkey and I'm good to go.  Everything is activated and each machine has its own registration info.

 

I use newsid to set the SID and machine name back to original.  I believe that might be necessary for the above to work, but haven't played around with trying to use different SIDS.  What I have is easy enough, and it works, so I'm happy with it.