I have read that windows 7 has a useable movie maker, but xp is essentially useless for your purpose.
I asked the same question a while back, and someone told me to use sony vega. Don't do it. it is a pig, and will freeze your computer.
I took it back and got adobe premier. My computer will not run it, something to do with the outdated chip.
I am using Nero. It works good, but doesn't have all of the features that I would like, and has a couple of glitches.
One thing that I started doing to speed things up is not to use the programs' browse feature, but minimise it, open the file in another window, and drag-and-drop the files into place.
nero has some file convert features that are pretty good. all in all, i'd give it a strong 3 1/2 stars of 5.
I've heard that adobe premiere is a good program, but I don't have any experience with it. I'll have to wait until I upgrade my computer.
Snowmobile Movie I made using Nero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQevcBEqu1s
Trials video I made using Nero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4swyQ9J5tC8
Another thing to be aware of when working with video files is that it tends to fragment your drive pretty fast. So when your computer starts slowing down after working with your video files, just close everything down and defrag...
