"speaking of booting, isn;t there a way to have multiple boot configs? a clean one and a regular fully loaded one ?"

Probably - do a search for something like - XP multiple boot configurations - You'll probably get a host of results on dual or multi-boot though which usually means booting two different installations of XP. That might be what you end up having to do but there may well be a way to get different boot configs for the same installation.

If you do F8 on boot, one of the choices should allow you to select which drivers to load, but  that would be a pain & I'm not sure it would be as comprehensive as a clean boot.

If you have room, especially on a second drive, a dual boot might be more convenient than messing with configs, though you'd probably have to install your 3D programs again for that XP. Poser might run as is since it will supposedly run from an external HD - don't know.

IIRC safe mode boots with a generic VGA video driver which would probably be a show stopper in itself for 3D work.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken