XP Pro freezing, Audio Drivers won't install

[pseudonymm]

I am running Windows XP Professional x64 on my computer, and have been for over 5 years now. Recently I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge processor, i5-3450 along with 8GB of DDR3-1600 ram, with a Biostar B75MU3+ (Intel chipset B75) motherboard.
I have a clean install of XP pro on my hard-drives, but everytime I go to install my sound card audio drivers (creative X-Fi Fatal1ty), it freezes up. I have done everything I can think of, from running MemTest to make sure my RAM sticks are good, completely re-formatting the harddrive, installing drivers from the CD and from the website. No dice.
The next step I'm thinking about taking is getting Win 7, and seeing if that fixes it. But before I throw $100 at the problem, I want to know if there's anyway I can be sure it isn't the motherboard or CPU. I don't have spare ones to test with.

 

[C1]

What you are experiencing is not surprising given the new hardware.

Ensure that you have at least SP2 loaded first. Also try selectively installing the audio software. If possible try just loading the driver (and not control panels). Also try just loading the driver package for WIN 7 to see what happens (eg, may include an XP fix/upgrade for new hardware). Try manually assigning the audio to a conventional IRQ such as IRQ 5 which is typical/conventional for sound cards ( http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/IRQnumbers.asp ). Ensure in the BIOS that any onboard sound is disabled.

There are lots of ideas to try before giving up.