Thanks for the answer on upgrading.
Now I want to do an Internet-based installation of a 'compact' flavor. This, I understand, avoids the use of a stack of floppies. It requires loading some initial files to the hard-disk, execute the correct files and then download more files from the Net. Folllowing instructions from the Debian sites, I had downloaded root.bin, install.bat, linux.bin, drivers.tgz, loadlin.exe.
I edited install.bat so that the files referred in there has the right directory path. When I executed install.bat, in the 'cmd' window of XP, there was "Invalid keyboard code specified" in the beginning, followed by lines about CPU mode and ending with a line that reads "WARNING: Not enough free memory (load buffer size)." My PC has 256MB.
Can someone tell me what's wrong?