Although those are impressive numbers, the comparison does not really make much sense.
XP is 9 years old. Ubuntu(10) a couple of weeks afaik. And for a real benchmark there should be information about what kind of initialization XP does (virus app, startup processes, ...).
what do you mean by virus app?
yes XP is not an up to date system. However isn't horrible that 9 years old systems requires more hardware resources than a new one?
consider the microsfot way anf e.g. resources consumption of Vista ;) I
XP is 9 years old. Ubuntu(10) a couple of weeks afaik. And for a real benchmark there should be information about what kind of initialization XP does (virus app, startup processes, ...).