I assume you mean Task Manager and not Taskbar.

7 svchosts.exe does seem excessive for XP, but not all that much. To find out more about what each entry is, you need a utility like Sysinternal's Process Explorer;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

It will help, with a little work on your part.

Hope that helps.

Mark