Fresh Install of Windows XP, can't connect to internet, but when Vista is Instal

Let's get the silly suggestion out of the way first - did you check to see that a driver was available for the network ethernet controller in XP?

yes the driver is avilable, I checked device manager and it doesnt have a red X or a ?

*Sorry what I meant to say was no there is not another driver available, it seems to be updated, I was a bit confused

Hmm - never known a fresh installation of XP behave like that. It might have help to put a tick in "Automatically detect settings" in Control Panel>Internet Options>Connection tab>LAN button. If you try again, reset the DNS with a flushdns command in Command Prompt>ipconfig.

Yes I have already done those commands as well as a few others. I'm extremely desperate now because I have college classes I am taking and obviously need a working internet connection to complete the courses

Check the browser settings to make sure it's not set to run through a proxy server.

Is your connection showing up properly in the network connections?