An update to Chrome magically broke compatibility with XP SP2, seeing as my server can't use it, and my virtual machines can't use it.
Seeing as you've gone through the basic troubleshooting steps (reinstalling, uninstalling recently installed programs, restarting windows,) you might want to use another browser for the time being (personally recommend Opera for being better than chrome at loving everything,) or upgrade to SP3. (provided you're not using SP3)