That must have been really long time ago, I remember having no problem dual-booting XP with linux.
The prescribed order was to install XP and then Linux on a different device/partition. Linux would install Grub or LILO in MBR with dual boot options.
Hence, the easy way to clean up Grub or LILO was to boot into DOS from a CD or floppy and run ‘fdisk /mbr’