Making Windows XP guest running faster in VirtualBox (Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx)

I've tried to run Windows XP guest using VirtualBox in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and it was running significantly slower than qemu/kvm. But simple tricks made it run much faster.

The worst slow down was caused by I/O APIC. It is used when you want your Windows XP guest to use dual or more core. I didn't make extensive tests, but the following Settings

• IO APIC Disabled
• 192MB RAM
• One CPU core for guest Windows XP
• VT-x/AMD-V Disabled
• Nested Paging Disabled
• PAE/NX Disabled
• EFI Disabled
• 2D/3D Video Acceleration Disabled

gives much much better performance than

• IO APIC Enabled
• 784MB RAM
• Dual CPU core for guest Windows XP
• VT-x/AMD-V Enabled
• Nested Paging Enabled
• PAE/NX Enabled
• EFI Disabled
• 2D/3D Video Acceleration Enabled