Darkheath, have you tried running HW2 in NT mode? Go to your homeworld2.exe file, right click, choose compatibility, and then set it as NT SP5. Running it as XP SP2 didn't work for a friend but he said that NT worked just fine.
The patches are all inclusive, but this latest one might have a few glitches and most of the mods are for 1.03 only, since the 1.04 Tools are not out yet. You may want to start with 1.03 and then upgrade to 1.04 in a little while.
Cheers!