Help needed understanding how to image Vista

Hello Everyone,

We used to purchased HP computers with and image them using ghost. It
was real easy as the image contained all the required settings and
applications. Just make a sysprep.ini with the admin password,
timezone, regional settings, computername and description and a couple
of commands that set the IP and auto logon. Run SysPrep.EXE, select
Mini Setup, shutdown and image with ghost. Then just PXE boot the new
PCs and run ghost. Too easy.

Now we have Vista, WAIK, ImageX, Windows PE and XML answer files.

I've read all the documentation I can find and I'm just so confused
about what I need to do to accomplish what I used to do with ghost and
sysprep.

Do I need an answer file? Is ImageX my only option for creating an
image? What are the basic steps it need to do get the same results
that I had previously with XPP?

As you can see, very confused so any advise appreciated.

TIA