Windows 7 Professional has an XP emulator built in. That means you can run your older programs in a windows that acts like the XP operating system. I've used this in the past and it works pretty well - some programs still have problems but most work just fine.
Here's a link from Microsoft that explains how to do it and a tool you can run to make sure your PC can handle it:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...e-in-windows-7