DOSBox is really easy to learn and likely to be more stable and consistent when running games than XP. You basically just type in a few lines, and there you go!

I'm not familiar with DOSbox and lack patience. Does this way to work Arena under XP [sp3 btw] work well or will I be crashing every 5 minutes [...if I'm lucky]?

DOSBox requires much less patience than levelling up a MW or OB character.