first build help ? software....

[tynowlan]

this is my first build (I've always had a MAC). i've been using a pc lately and decided to build one, mostly because there are a lot more games for a pc. here is what i have so far...
1. case: antec p180 mid tower. 4- 120mm fans
2. power supply: antec truecontrol 2.0, 550 watt, atx12v v2.0
3. motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe, socket 939 for AMD CPU NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI. with dual PCI-e VGA cards.
4. CPU: AMD ATHLON 64 Processor 3500+ 2.2G 939 512K
5. memory: 2- 512mb - 184 pin dimm 64mx64 ddr pc3200 cl2
6. floppy: a really cheap one, but new
7. hard drive: HD 200G/ST 7K 8M SATA2 ST3200827AS
8. video card: PNY GEFORCE 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 (just one right now, will buy another in a few weeks when i have more money )
9. optical drive: sony 8.5gb dvd/r/rw/cd rewritable drive dru-810a


everything is assembled and working fine( well as far as i can tell). went to the bios screan, it recognized the hardware that i installed. i have no clue what a bios is and how changing settings will effect what the comp. will do so i left everything on default for now (is there any thing that must be changed in the bios?). i dont have an OS installed yet, this is where im stuck. i downloaded a demo 120day version of windows xp from mirosoft and burned to cd like the directions told me to, in order to install on a new computer. when i put the cd in it just says boot failure, insert system disk( or something like that). i've been reading around and it would appear that im supposed to have a floppy to boot the system? there is no floppy on my current pc to make one.... umm or am i suposed to? do i need to go pick up windows xp at the store( will it have everything i need to get running?). speaking of windows, which is better.......... xp or 2000. ive been hearing a lot of nasty s##t about trying to install xp on a new comp. (is this true) if so is windows 2000 still available to purchase anymore? please excuse me for my probably stupid questions, but any help would be much appreciated.

looking at my list of components does it look like i have everything i need and compatable with each other. i did my best and researched but i may have missed something..

THANKS,
TY

[kram 2.0]

In order to boot from a disk (floppy, CD, etc), you must have the disk formatted in a specific way such that when the system boots up, it would be recognized as, for example, an operating system. Since at one point or another you will need to get an OS, I suggest purchasing a full WinXP CD (Newegg has OEM XP Home CDs for about 90 USD). Like all operating systems, Windows XP is not perfect, but it's not that bad at all. Keep in mind that those who complain comprise a small minority of the actual userbase.

kram