Just for the fun of it I tried installing XP with the old Bochs BIOS and then booting it with SeaBIOS. It installs fine, then can't boot with either BIOS. With SeaBIOS, it blue screens with the same message as the install CD. Here's the log:
Thanks, Myles
enter handle_18: NULL Booting from CD-Rom... ata_detect_medium: begin await_ide: ERROR (TIMEOUT,BSY,!BSY,!BSY_DRQ,!BSY_!DRQ,!BSY_RDY) 3 status=0000005 1 time= 0 timeout= 32000 sectors=296508 579MB medium detected Booting from 00000000:00007c00 fail handle_1ab10e:127(00000089): a=4153b10e b=00000000 c=00000000 d=20491a49 si=00000000 di=00000d34 ds=0000f000 es=00001a49 ip=000077dd cs=00001000 f=00000246 r=00000cea fail get_device:608(00000001): a=0000153f b=00000000 c=00000002 d=00060082 si=0000146a di=00000000 ds=00001a49 es=00005023 ip=00005dd4 enter handle_11: a=00000000 b=0000000c c=00000040 d=00060000 si=00001338 di=00000000 ds=00001a49 es=00000040 ip=0000412e cs=00001000 f=00000246 r=00000d06 fail floppy_13XX:709(00000001): a=00001507 b=00000003 c=0000000f d=00065000 si=00005026 di=00000000 ds=00001a49 es=0000504a ip=000055be cs=00001000 f=00000212 r=00000c02