XP:great on a new system, Extra Poor on a low end one

I have worked with many operating systems from DOS 2.0 on up to XP and with a few OS that are not of the Microsoft family. It seems that just as fast as computers make another step forward then the OS takes a giant leap forward... or is it backward. Tell me if I am wrong but the goal of computers seems to be to do things faster. But when companies come out with bloated OS it does not make things faster it slows stuff down. You end up having to use more "horse power" to get the same stuff done. That is not to say I do not use XP but I held out for as long as I could before upgrading any of my machines to it. Every OS is made by man and thereby is by definition imperfect. But XP is rather bloated. Yes it followed in 98's footsteps and has tons of drivers built in which is good but that also takes up a large amount of space. Also I have found that many companies decided not to bother making drivers for their "legacy" equipment for XP so be very careful that all your computer parts and peripherials work before installing XP. (XP has a utility to do this but it may not catch everything) I upgraded because I found a 1.3 gigahertz computer by the trash with Win ME on it and it would hardly function. Also many new programs are starting to work only on xp. It is the current new kid on the block OS wise. So most computer addons have drivers for it. Question is will they in the future.