Down grading from Vista to XP Pro

Just format your hardisk and install a new fresh copy of Win XP Pro...
That's what would i do if i were u, ma'am.

It appears the eMachine website only have Vista driver support for that model.

You could get lucky with XP having enough generic drivers, and finding the rest after internet access has been established.

If you have the Vista install disk it could be worth a shot as you could always reinstall Vista if it doesn't work. If you have an imaging program such as Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost or other, you could create a backup image just in case.

The eMachine site with drivers support for your machine:

http://support.gateway.com/emachines/emac/ET1641/ET1641...
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?s...