Ok I just got the ti 4200.  I like it thus far..however it says that it is only optimized for directx 8.1  Should I even bother with directx 9.0?

If I do...how do I go about installing it, because when I installed the drivers for this one..there was a note that directx 8.1 needed to be installed prior to installing the nvidia drivers.  Do I need to install the directx9.0 then install the nvidia drivers again?

When they say that a video card supports Direct X 7, 8, 9, whatever...all they're saying is that it supports the standards introduced by that version of Direct X, such as pixel shaders, vertex shaders, etc....they aren't saying that the card will only work with THAT specific version.  The best way of saying it, is that the Ti4200 is Direct X 8.1 compliant, meaning that it is compliant with the standards introduced by that version, but it supports other versions of Direct X, which will include those features, and introduce new features that newer graphics cards can take advantage of.  Even though your specific card may not be compliant with the new Direct X version doesn't mean that you won't get any benefits from it and that you won't need it (pretty soon games will come with Direct X 9 bundled and you'll be forced to install it anyways).

(Hopefully all of that made sense, because when I re-read it, it didn't really make sense to me )

You can install Direct X one of two ways:

You can use Windows Update (in IE, go to Tools -> Windows Update) and use the "web install" which will minimize your download size to specifically what files your system needs.  This is probably the best solution if you're only installing on one system, or if the system isn't formatted often. (You can also use this link for the web install: http://download.microsoft.com/downloa....tup.exe)

You can also get the redistributable version, which is a larger download, but is good if you're installing over a network, on more than one system, or if you want to burn to CD:  http://download.microsoft.com/downloa....ist.exe

When you do install Direct X 9, after you reboot, you should reinstall the NVIDIA drivers for best performance & stability.

When I reinstall the nvidia drivers..do I uninstall them first then install them after a reboot...or do I just install over them again.  If I have to remove them first...how do I stop xp home from reinstalling them automatically?

I have an XTASY GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB and I installed DX9 with no problems and no driver re-installs, with XP.