Funny you should ask. I have a full CH Products HOTAS gameport setup, including Pro Pedals and Throttle and a ForceFX joystick. Since I run WinXP Pro I can't program the thing or use the force feedback. They did finally come out with a decent driver so I can at least adjust the sensitivity and dead zones.
What I haven't tried yet, and theoretically it should work, is to run Win98 in a VMware virtual session. In case you don't know what VMware is, it is an awesome piece of software that lets you run other OS's on Windows (or Linux) in a virtual session while using XP or whatever you are running. I use it a lot for development, it's sweet.
You can also dual-boot into Win9x and program the joystick, then boot back to XP to play yourgame. The stick will keep it's button assignments. A pain, but it works.
I'm going to upgrade to a Cougar once LOMAC comes out, but I've always loved this CH setup. I just felt a little screwed when they refused to try and write an XP-compatable version of SpeedKeys. I don't buy their "can't write to the gameport in XP" excuse, others have done it. :x