I am surprised that Win XP doesn't have the drivers built in for your CD-ROM drive. Maybe it just needs a firmware update. I remembering installing a generic DVD-ROM with no company drivers and it worked fine; some of the configurations had to be changed though.
But I agree with Joe on this one, go to
www.newegg.com or any other local computer store to get a $15 to $30 CD-ROM drive.
And even if you successfully wrote drivers for the CD-ROM to work, it probably wouldn't work all that well. Not because of your programming skills, but because old peripherals, don't work that well with new equipment.