Do you think that...

...a MacBook, 1.83 ghz with 1gb of ram will run xp smoothly though boot camp or parallels?

I want to try putting windows on, but I'm not sure what the performance would be like with bootcamp OR parallels. Thanks!

Running Windows via Boot Camp is just like running Windows on any other machine. So if Windows can work well on a PC with 1.83GHz and 1GB of RAM, it'll work exactly the same on your Mac via Boot Camp.

Virtualization is a bit different as Windows is emulated rather than run natively. Fortunately, programs like Parallels and VMware Fusion have matured to the point where running Windows in a virtual machine is essentially the same as running it natively. The only caveat is that 3D graphics don't run at full speed. So if you plan on playing games, Boot Camp is the way to go for that.