Do you now what format your old partitions are at?
I believe XP installs NTFS as it's default and I know older versions of windows wont' see such partitions, and I have heard of Linux having similar problems unless you set it up properly.
If this is the case I will look to see how to set up linux properly.. I have a few freinds who use linux alot, although I personally have little experience with it.
edit-
here you go see if this helps you
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#3.5