I agree with Allen on all things. That said I tried the XP Mode too, this is a nice and welcome feature. You can run your old programs (read SAP) in that still. It is a just a Virtual Machine but it does have the very nice feature that the installed applications integrate into the start menu of W7 and also very nice that you can start those apps on your Windows 7 desktop without having to go into the Virtual Machine (off course it still runs in the background) but performance wise it runs really good. Although you really notice the x64/x86 difference here. XP Mode runs a lot better on the x64 version.

Nice thing about this and PLEASE take note of this. Downloading XP mode beta provides you with a VHD of a fully activated and genuine Windows XP. So copy it for your own reasons BEFORE you make your first boot with it. Which brings me to the only problem I have with XP Mode. You can not take snapshots of it. Maybe they will change that in the RTM but I doubt it, I would really prefer to have the option (like in VMWare) to take snapshots though.