XP has ClearType

Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology but doesn't have it enabled by default.

It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat.

To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop,
select Properties,
Appearance,
Effects,
select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection.
Expect best results on laptop displays.

If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well,
set the registry entry
HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/ControlPanel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.