What is the difference between Windows XP and Windows XP SP3?

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* Stability updates: These updates impact on how the already stable XP runs increasing the availably and reliability of the operating system. * Performance updates: These updates improve XP performance and enhance interoperability and hardware compatibility. * Security Updates: These updates include previous security updates and new updates. * Out of band releases: These updates include some releases that Microsoft has developed like MMC 3.0 and core XML services 6.0. * Minor feature updates: Features like NAP have been added so that customers can now take advantage of Windows 2008 server. Support for WPA2 is also available as a separate download. Microsoft recommends Windows XP Service Pack 3 as the de facto standard for users running Windows XP. Service Pack 3 is the baseline update for customers still using Windows XP. Microsoft have elected for the latest version of internet explorer to not be installed with Service Pack 3. If IE7 or IE6 is detected during the installation respective updates and security patches are applied to match the correct version.