More advice needed about Grub, WinGrub, & LILO

[aahhaaa]

Hi guys-
OK, there's this dual boot machine; it has XP & Mandrake 9.2 on it, prob'ly that was done with LILO or Grub, but don't know that for a fact. The startup screen looks like an official Mandrake job, but has no specs or option to modify itself. Root password is long forgotten...

Read a bunch of posts here that say messing with XP can be troublesome; this setup is working, but the 9.2 isn't used or wanted anymore. I'd like to sneak Puppy in its place, I expect there would be plenty of room where Mandrake fit...

I'm wondering if I can do everything needed from within Puppy, or do I need to find the exact original installer (Grub or LILO)?
Does uninstalling Mandrake usually go well?

Also, McAfee's IS is on the machine, need that be uninstalled before any tampering at the boot level? (long update download after the reinstall, if so)