Snow Leopard, Bootcamp, and XP... I'm new

I'm sort of unfamiliar with the mac as I just recently got my first macbook. It's running snow leopard and I want to also run Windows XP on it. However, I have some pre-installed software on snow leopard that I don't want to lose while installing XP.

My question is: Can I make a partition and install windows XP without affecting anything that's on my mac OS as it is now? If so, can someone please direct me to a guide, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Yes. The guide is built right into Boot Camp Assistant. Make sure you go to print it out when prompted.

I would also recommend this thread:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/wi...4239-running-windows-mac-switchers-guide.html

BootCamp Assistant will be found in your Applications / Utilities folder.

Or you can just search for it in Spotlight.

I would recommend just installing XP in a virtual machine via Sun's VirtualBox (free). I have more success with VB than either of the "other guys". I have XP running in one space and Mac OS X in the other so I can switch back/forth as needed with no reboot.