See http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_linux_xp_installed_first.htm

Using the CD from Canonical, I installed 8.04 on my XPS400 dual boot with XP SP3 with no difficulty.  The APC mag article was a big help. The only iffy part was deciding how to partition the space. According to XP, I had 195 GB free space prior to partition and 155 GB after, which is close to what I wanted. However, according to Disk Usage Analyzer the Ubuntu partition shows as 68.6 GB of which 5.4 GB is used. I don't know how to account for the difference or which figure is accurate. I would've preferred that the Grub bootloader give me the option to place XP at the top of the boot list, but it either does not or I missed it.

aight thax guys