Hi Scott,
Have never come across Absolute Startup Manager before.

Can tell you that Winpatrol does give info on all the programs in startup but the info is rather limited unless you have the paid-for version. Don't know whether you are aware that there are also hidden startup programs which WinPatrol does disclose.
You can alter your startup set with WinPatrol but, as far as I know, you can't create different custom startup sets with the free version.
Besides the startup (& hidden startup programs) are you aware of all the services which are running in the background - again, these can be looked at with Windows Task Manager but, on XP, it's pretty basic.

As I shall shortly be moving on to Windows 7, I will no doubt manage with the Win 7 startup manager (thanks to Bill's timely advice) but have been glad of Winpatrol in the meantime.
Tony