I've never understood the bad reputation that Vista has. I've been running the 64-bit Ultimate version since launch, first on an HP tablet PC, then my custom built tower, now my XPS laptop. I've done video and dvd editing and creation with both the built-in stuff and later Adobe products, gaming, general productivity applications, media sharing, e-mail, internet, and even GPS software/hardware on the mobile PCs. Everything worked fine.
If you really don't like Vista, try Windows 7, but just realize that you'll have to wipe an existing box to install it, and wipe it again wether you decide to go with it or install something else. XP support is on the way out, but it is stable enough that you probably won't need it, except for security updates.