Upgrading Old Computer w/ Windows 98SE OEM

[kvneedshelp]

I am thinking about upgrading my old emachines 600 Mhz computer, and I mean complete overhaul. It is to become a 3.0 Ghz computer with new motherboard, more ram, etc. However, I have heard with XP systems that you can't upgrade the motherboard with an OEM copy.
Does this also apply to the OEM for 98SE?

Will I be able to take the hard drive running Win 98 SE and use it for my new computer? If so, how?

Because I purchased it from emachines all I have is the restore cd and product key, no Windows cd.

 

[pip22]

Windows XP is 'locked in' to a particular system by what's known as 'Product Activation', which checks the hardware and stops working if there have been any radical changes since the first install. However, Windows 98 does not use Product Activation, so provided you leave it installed as you make your changes to the system and install new drivers where required, you should be fine. The Recovery CD, however, is likely to be unusable once you've made radical changes to the system, since it contains all the appropriate device drivers for the system as it is now. You would have to try using the recovery CD to find out for sure, but then you risk being left with a useless PC if it doesn't work because it would wipe out your existing Windows installation if it got so far and then failed. A better idea is to leave your current installation of Windows on 'C', upgrade the hardware and install all device drivers , then get some disk-imaging software (Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost) and create and save an image of drive 'C' on another partition or a second hard-disk. Then burn the image to a CD or DVD as a backup.