Vostro XP Reformatting

Regarding a new, out of box Vostro:

I read through the Reformatting guide for XP by Amber. I additionally read Les' Vista reformatting guide that included something about an AHCI driver that was necessary. Now, I realize, duh, the Vista guide shouldn't apply to me, but I figured it was prudent to ask anyway since as far as I know, AHCI is hardware, and the XP guide was written in like 2006 and this may be new. Is this something I'd necessary need to worry about in reformatting XP?

If I wanted to keep MediaCenter, to reformat a new Vostro would I just:

Turn it on, out of the box.
Insert the Media Center disk.
Clear all partitions, reformat through that.
Create new partitions, install Media Center.
Insert XP CD and install XP in a free partition.
Basic drivers and run Windows Update.

Would that basically be it? Those guides seem to try to make things sound complicated with pre-prepping drivers and stuff that seems relatively unnecessary to me when I could just get them after installing no?

Also, I know Vostros are supposed to be a lot better about Bloatware than other models. But how much bloatware is on them? Do I actually get the notebook new with a fresh, clean XP and NOTHING else, or is there always some things I'd be best getting rid of with a clean install?