Before Mac OS X 10.4 came out with its "Widgets", a clever software development company created the "Konfabulator" application, which accomplished the same sort of thing - but in my opinion does it better.  They released a version for Windows as well, which is every bit as cool on XP as the Mac release (i.e., still cooler than Apple's Widgets). 

This giveaway was prompted by the acquisition of the parent company by Yahoo, and promises to greatly improve the software by combining it with "feeds" from Yahoo's content. 

I recommend downloading this and giving it a look-see.  Now that it's free, you've got nothing to lose...