I should add that XP also came out at a time when PCs were starting to come to a point that upgrading hardware began to offer only diminishing returns to this s

I should add that XP also came out at a time when PCs were starting to come to a point that upgrading hardware began to offer only diminishing returns to this same set of people. P4 and first dual cores are fast enough to run the same 3 main things, net/office/music&movies with out being annoyingly slow (assuming you had a gig or more of ram). So perfect storm of good enough hardware and software.