[vox-tech] dualboot noob question

[Cylar Z]

Two questions about dual-booting:

1. Is it possible to add a Linux partition to a
computer that's already running Windows XP on a
single-partition drive, without disturbing the
pre-existing Windows installation?

2. If the answer to #1 is "NO" and it is necessary to
repartition the drive, what is the best tool to do so?
Secondly, which OS should be installed first, or does
it matter?

I know MS products suck, but I need to use this
computer as a gaming machine as well as an
experimental Linux box. I suppose I could just add a
second hard drive and physically switch the IDE ribbon
back and forth, but that seems like a lot of hassle. 

I found some documents on this on tldp.org, but most
of them are several years old and pre-date newer
filesystems like NTFS, so I was a little afraid to
trust the information.

Thanks in advance.