I thought the same about vista a few months back, i got basic for really cheap and installed it and only lasted a day because i couldnt get my soundcard working or my webcam installed, but a few months later on i installed Ultimate 32bit(which i have now) and my sound cards now working and ive got another webcam which DOES work in vista so im sorted, and it runs just as fast as xp did on my machine.
Had it installed a whole week now and not one error or issue