Yeah those instructions you got given are right
Don't worry, people have to go it the first time sometime. You'll know what to do next time. Since you have Windows XP, the process will be rather easy anyway,.
START:
Restart the computer and keep pressing DEL til you get some menus (this is the BIOS). Now enter the first menu (or if not, it'll be the second one on the left), press Enter to access menus and Enter to select things to change.
You'll find a list here saying
1st Boot Device
Second Boot Device
Third Boot Device
Set by pressing Enter and then the up, down arrows as the 1st boot option, CD Rom,
then select the second boot device to Hard drive, or IDE-0 which the case might be.
Now press escape to go back a step in the menu and use the arrow keys to select Save and Exit. Press Y and enter to except the changes.
INSTALLING WINDOWS:
Now make sure the Windows XP disc is in, and it'll reboot.
Now when windows would usually start, it'll come up with text saying 'Press any key to boot from cd'. Press enter.
It'll now start copying files to RAM to start the setup process. Just follow through as most of it will be automatic.
The first menu will be where you want to create the windows, just select where it is, and press next.
The next menu you wil have to change will simply be registration info like time and date, etc.
NOTE:
If you have a USB mouse, you might not be able to use the mouse to select things.
So simply press the TAB key on the keyboard to move down seperate things like things you might need to type in, Enter to select, and Escape to go back and arrow keys to move across and things.
FINISHING:
It will restart a few times within the installation process and this is fine.
After all this has done and it says 100% complete and says it is going to restart, you will be able to take the disc out and windows will start to boot.
It'll now let you set up wndows the way you want, and give you a tour.
Simple as that
I hope this helps