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I wouldn't classify hardware purchases as "easiest," but that's just me.
Anyway, just install XP on your primary drive first, then linux on your secondary drive. The distro that you choose will almost definitely install grub or lilo (I prefer grub...no intervention needed when you upgrade the kernel) in the MBR of the primary drive, allowing you to choose which drive to boot at startup, no new hardware or commercial boot managers needed. If you install linux first, windows will overwrite the MBR of you primary drive and require you to reinstall grub...not too difficult, but daunting for a linux newbie.
Lots of folks seem to be under the impression that grub/lilo can't boot XP...that is not the case. Let them take over your MBR and proceed to dual boot happiness without spending any cash (although I would pay attention to the warnings about FC2).
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