Win XP upgrade or clean install?

I remember the horror of trying to upgrade a Win95 installation to Win98. Then the same thing happened from 98 to 2000.
I would like to know if the same problems (instability, unrecognized devices, bad drivers, corrupted installations, etc.) plague an upgrade to XP (in my case from Win98ME to XP, don’t ask).
Another question, can I do a ‘clean’ install to a formatted HD from a WinXP upgrade CD like I could Win9x?

Thanks,

Christopher