XP Pro with Vista?

I just purchased a new Dell Dimension 9200. It came with Vista Basic. I wanted it with XP Pro but they would not change it. So I want to buy & install XP Pro. Can I have both operating systems? Can I do this by partitioning my hard drive? I have my old computer’s hard drive partitioned for C: drive and then two smaller partitions for data storage and I would like two data partitions besides OS. But it has been 5 years and I’m not sure how to do it? Is there some on-line instruction/help for this? Don’t tell me to buy one of those programs that does it, I tried to do that and it was a waste of money.

Or maybe I don’t need Vista at all? We don’t do gaming. Mostly photos and accounting. I just want to be able to use the various programs we already have, many from Win 98SE. Since this is just Vista Basic maybe it wouldn’t benefit me to keep it. I always have the CD if I need it at a later date. Any opinions?
THANX