Boot camp and windows XP..can't use the "option" key to dual boot

Hi All
I'm a Mac newbie, but I know LOTS about windows XP. I set up windows XP to run on my brand new (5 days old) macbook. I can use bootcamp to boot from OS/X to windows XP, and everything works well o both systems (I also loaded fusion, didn't like it cause I had to keep activating Microsoft Office 2007 everytime I switched from the VM to the bootcamp method of accessing XP).
My question..when I hold down the option key when I turn on the computer, only the Mac hard drive appears, not the windows...so, I boot into OS/X and then switch to windows from there. Any ideas why the option key only gives me the Mac HD option?
Thanks

In terms of AV, I'm running Mcafee AV and firewall, if that's any help knowing..I don't know if the AV changes any boot record, etc. Also, interesting when I go to the boot camp control panel when I am in windows, both "hard drives, Mac and windows" show up as folders. When I go to the control panel in the Mac OS, the Mac HD shows up as a hard drive, and the windows shows up as a folder. So...who knows!
As for using Vista vs. windows, well, I haven't worked much with Vista, but, since many of us that need windows use programs that may not reliably work with Vista, I have stuck with XP.
As for the use of Fusion, my point was this. I put the trial copy on and then loaded office 2007...each time I started the windows boot camp partition, or the fusion VM, I had to reactive Office 2007...this is a known problem in fusion VMware per their discussion board on the site. If you load fusion AND the fusion tools before activating Windows XP, then you only have to activate windows twice, once in bootcamp and once in fusion, but you have to look for the fusion tools and load them, they don't load by default.
Thanks for the OS dual boot software suggestion, I'll check it out...this is not a huge problem, but, when the Apple engineers respond to my question as "hmmm...we don't know"...I'm a bit concerned. So, as an old time windows user who just switched to Mac, my initial take it...both systems have their problems, just a different set of problems...but, so far I love my Macbook.

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