and welcome to the Forum
You can use a Dell Reinstallation cd ( Dell does not furnish recovery or Restoration discs ) to install XP on your Sony as long as it is the same version ( Home, Pro or MCE ) . . when prompted for the Product Code, use the one on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop
You can download the drivers from the Sony website ahead of time while you can see them in Device Manager and burn to cd for use after the install. You can also download and run the BElarc Advisor to get the details of the hardware and software.