My computer does the same thing, it display Viao, flashes the pentium sceen and then sits on this black screen of death for 2 minutes and 40 seconds before starting windows. Is something wrong? what should i do?

remove any cds, floppy disks and usb devices (apart from the ones you really need, like a keyboard/mouse) from the drive and seee if its faster

Hay Matt,
I think your Windows Boot Sector is crash, so
Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive.
When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

You have to oress R and windows will repair the
Boot sector.

Good Luck.