Format and reinstall OS for Inspiron 9100

First I want to apologize for anyone who might have responded to any of my earlier posts.  It seems that both posts were in violation of the "Dell Community Terms of Service."  After reviewing the post all I can think of that might have been a "violation" is a slang term for making an error.  No it was not an egregious term that began with an F."  Very harmless synonym but obviously the conservatives have taken over this site (kidding....maybe).  Anyway I am not a techie and am going to try and format and reinstall the OS on an old Inspiron 9100. It is my sons old laptop and it runs very slow.  I installed 2GB of RAM and it is slightly improved but it surely needs a "freshening." For anyone who has accomplished this or is experienced in doing this is there anything I should know in advance?  Are there any suggestions on partitioning the disk which I gather it prompts you to do. Do I need to partition the disk? I have a 40GB Fujitsu.  If you suggest to partition the disk how do I do this or will XP prompt me?  The disks I have are the Windows XP reinstallation disk, the drivers and utilities disk, (has device drivers, diagnostics and utilities and online documentation), the application disk, (for reinstalling Cyberlink PowerDVD), Office Basic Edition 2003, and a disk I will not reinstall such as 2003 Turbotax.  Am I missing anything?  Finally assuming I can accomplish this what driver updates should I dowload.  Any suggestions on that?  Thanks.