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Even if you have a recovery CD, it is so worth building your own install media. The key bit is you need to find your setupp.ini file. Find it, gmail yourself a copy. With that info you can turn a retail CD into an OEM CD.

(Info on setupp.ini)
http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/setuppini.html

The next bit is creating an OEM ISO. Use any WinXP CD you can find - MSDN, etc - and use NLite to create a custom image. Great opportunity to slipstream in the service packs, patches, and any tuning you want as well. Replace the old setupp.ini with yours, and burn the ISO. Use the license key that came with your machine.

http://www.nliteos.com/

As a bonus, this makes for a nice clean OS. None of the aftermarket junk the manufactures add in.

http://www.nliteos.com/

You can actually easily alter a XP Retail cd to act like a XP OEM cd, I had the exact issue (OEM key, scratched OEM cd & good retail cd) - works like a charm -
http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/setuppini.html

Well, apparently Apple wants us to all go out and buy the full version of Windows XP...

You don't seem to understand the technical (or commercial) reality...

You only need a full version of XP due to a minor technical limitation, which also existed in the unoffical solution released before Apple's.

I have no doubt these will be overcome by the time the production version of Boot Camp ships. If not, you can always work around it.

Make a custom windows 2000 boot cd that includes the controller driver. http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/index.php?showto pic=5090

You could hack the setupp.ini file...

My research indicates that it's legit, and has been online for awhile. According to the copyright laws of the US, you can "import" things from outside the US, even if they violate US law if purchased here. As long as it's legit where you get it, and you import it for your personal use, you're OK. Kind of the same how you can buy bootlegs outside the US and bring them home. Heck, it even gets good reviews

Plus, they have not ripped me off since May, and so far no one has shown how this is illegal.

While I know it's not Soviet Russia, it's damn cheap. You can download an album for $1.50- and it's legit.

I skimmed through the article, which didn't have many technical details. Here's what we do at work:

You can integrate the service pack into the setup (which will be especially useful when SP2 arrives) so that it's installed at the same time. This works with Windows 2000 and up.

You can then use Sysprep (brief introduction) to automatically deploy the latest patches the first time the machine boots.

Here's a nice article on how to burn the result to a bootable CD.

It's a bit of work, and requires constant maintenance but it saves a lot of headaches in the long run.

An easier method, if you have a lot of machines with identical specs. Build a template machine with the OS installed, adding all the service packs, patches, etc. Use software like Ghost to make an image for deploying to multiple machines.

Who says the stuff you learn on an MCSE isn't useful? :-)

FYI, there is a Windows 2000 version of 'msconfig' available.

You can get it here

You can download the XP version of msconfig from The Tech Guide (they say it works on Win2K).
I can neither vouch for the download nor the site, this is what I got on Google.