Photoshop Elements is not that great to be honest, which is why it's often bundled with scanners for free. It lacks many features which are fairly fundamental for mid-level photo editing, such as adding complex clipping paths to an EPS file so you can have a non-destructive cut-out.
Look out on PC mags for older versions of PS being given away free (not unknown, in which case it would cost you a fiver or so), but bear in mind that versions back from PS 4 (which was one of the best PS iterations) are unstable on XP.
Chock