Are the CDROM drivers loaded before you get to the dos prompt?
What directory are you trying to access via dos.If the CDROM drivers are not loaded you won't be able to run setup.exe from the XP CD.
Also,check in the BIOS and make sure "1st Boot Device" is set to CDROM,not floppy.(that setting should be in Advanced BIOS features or similar).
If you still have no luck booting from the CD,set the "Ist Boot Device" back to Floppy and run setup from a set of Boot Disks,which you can downloaded from here.
BTW,i'm presuming you only want to run XP on that machine,and not a 98/XP dual boot.
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