Now that beta 2 of IE8 has been released, be careful of installation orders.  In a nutshell, if you installed IE8 beta 1, then XP Service Pack 3, and then install beta 2, you will have to live with IE8.

If you think you will want to remove IE8 (which you may very well want to do considering it is beta and may not play nicely or work as a finished version would)  you will need to uninstall Service Pack 3, remove beta 1, reinstall SP3, then install beta 2.

IE 8 Beta 2 Release Notes

CRM Explains it