My work setup relies on old Windows XP. Now, when Windows XP isn't supported by new hardware, it's getting harder and harder to buy a notebook on which Windows XP can run natively with all essential hardware (wireless cards, graphics, sound etc).

Since I don't expect my personal setup to turn away from Windows XP any time soon, I'm investigating the following trick: why not buy any decent hardware which Linux can fully utilize, and use it as a virtual host for a guest session with e.g. Windows XP. I like using hibernation, so I prefer this Linux to be as thin as possible, only enough to support VirtualBox, KVM or any other virtualization software.

Question: Are there any "standard" ways to do this, like Linux distributions aimed specifically on being light virtualization host?