Thanks to RhinoTrip & Deadcat who both found solutions: This one works; I just proved it.
On the pc running XP, log in as you normally would, go to users, manage network passwords.
Here is where the problem lies. In this dialog box
remove any win98 passwords or computer-assigned names for the win98 PCs. In my case , I had two
computer-assigned win98 pc names in this box
(example G4k8e6). I deleted these names (you may have passwords instead as Deadcat had). Then go to My Network Places and voila', no more delay!!
Now, after I did this and went to My Network Places to browse the first win98 pc, I was presented with a password/logon box that looked like this: logon: G4k8e6/guest (lightly greyed out) and a place to enter a password. I entered the password that I had previously used to share drives on the win98 pcs long before I installed XP. I have the guest account enabled in XP.
This solves the problem for win98 & XP machines on a lan; I can't guarantee it will work for win2k/ME
machines as well, but the whole secret lies in the
passwords.
If this doesn't solve your slow winxp>win98
access problems, then you probably have other things wrong. Don't forget to check all the posts in this NGP to include unchecking use "simple file sharing", turning off your ICS firewall, enabling Netbios over TCP/IP and installing proper protocols, services & permissions. You do all this and I guarantee it'll work. We have spent 3-1/2 weeks on this issue, so believe me, we have tried
everything.
ps- I claim no credit; thank Deadcat & the others

This did it!!!! I was T-2 days to reformat and go back to 98SE and it did it ... (Almost).

Actually, you need to not have passwords for the share on the 98SE machine at all. Leave it blank. Then delete the stored password on the XP system, and it will be instant.

YES - Thank you thank you thank you.

Interestingly, I've found that to view certain shares on a LAN with a variety of different OS's, you sometimes need to use "simple file sharing"... not quite sure why. - RT