[Beowulf] Young novice with a tight pocket book

[stuffnstuff]

I use my computer for massive rendering jobs regularily and wish there were 
ways of giving it more speed. I am strongly considering putting togethor a 
cluster, but I don't know the basic requirements. I have read several guides 
on building a cluster, but none of them seem to give the software and 
connection requirements. 
 Until I am corrected, I will be under the impression that I can run a 
cluster with a master node using XP Home and sub-nodes using Windows 98. Do 
I need to buy a new operating system? What do I need to physically connect 
the computers. If I can conjure up a few old computers that would barely be 
worth selling, is it worth building a cluster? How do I physically do all 
this? 
 Sorry for being ill informed...
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