Home Networking with 98, 98Se, & XP

Here’s the problem. I have an existing network with 2 98SE PCs, and a 98. Now I just bought a PC with XP loaded on it and for the life of me I can’t the XP to be recognized by the other computers. Sure sometimes for some odd reason one or two computers may see it at any given start up but never all consistantly. I’m looking for more than one or two choices on how I can accomplish this. On a side note, what do you think about Compaq computes? I prefer them, but then again my site is mostlythem anyways.