New, intentionally crippled, hardware that they don't really need might be an even tougher sell.
Doesn't matter. Intel and AMD adopt the Palladium Standard and redesign their chipsets... Microsoft builds a follow-up to XP and/or can add Palladium Support to XP... the board makers and OEMs will eventually be producing and selling only the new chipsets with the software support already installed... and sooner or later, you have to upgrade your PC. Maybe an amendment to the Fritz Bill will mandate an upgrade and provide a tax incentive.
you WILL be assimilated...