865PE NEO2 PLS

hi,
I had just assembled a PC with the following main specs:
MSI 865PE NEO2 PLS
P4 2.6C GHz
Kingston CL2.5 DDR400 2x256 MB
MediaMax Radeon 9600Pro
Hitachi 120 GB hard disk
+ other nitty gritties like CDROM drives, etc.

Need some help on setup:
I have dual-boot Win98SE and WinXP Pro (SP1a)
Mobo bios updated via Live Update to latest version.

1. Win98SE
a. after installing the mobo drivers, system hangs when re-booting. After a
few re-boots, I had to re-install Win98SE. Appreciate any help on this.
b. system hangs when loading the USB drivers from the provided disk or newer
one from MSI site, and will keep hanging on re-boots. Again had to
re-install Win98SE. Pls help.

2. WinXP Pro w/SP1a
- everything installed ok but could not get USB2.0 devices to work, i.e. XP
could not locate/load any drivers for the devices. The mobo BIOS has been
set up to work with both USB 1.1 & 2.0 devices. It was able to work with a
USB keyboard (USB1.1) but was not able to work with my Sony Microvault
thumbdrive as well as an external hard disk casing (USB2.0 type). Pls help.

- from the hardware device config, under enhanced USB hub driver details,
the USB version is indicated as 5.1.2600.2143 - I believe that's the latest
under WinXP.

Appreciate any help.
TIA