actually a compressed DOS7.1/Win98SE IO.SYS works better than using ME's, trying to save 4KB XMGR.SYS ended up have to replace XMS driver with (V)EMM driver with 10x size is no fun. have to replace stock COMMAND.COM with SvarCOM and re-stub 7zdecwat-9.12 for smaller size.
(disk image is updated with working one)
... from my testing. Paragon's GPT Loader can only work well with standard ATA driver(pciide.sys/atapi.sys). Any driver using SCSIPORT.SYS doesn't work well.
I think it is from https://dl.bloba.dev/Operating Systems/Windows/Windows XP/Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2022.6.16/Extras/Paragon GPT Loader v8.0.1.2/
IIRC SETUPLDR checks CPUID for CX8 as well, maybe winnt.exe and winnt32.exe and usetup(i.e. smss.exe on disc) all have same check to prevent 486 Win2000 users to upgrade.
emulated GD5446 and PCNet-III works fine here.
since its harddisk image is on a 10000rpm WD VelociRaptor drive, it boots quite fast, within 1 minute.
BTW can you patch out D3DCompiler_43.dll's cmpxchg8b?