if i remember correctly, a wise person in this forum advised not using nLite to integrate drivers.
I'm not, I use nLite to integrate post SP3 pack (http://xable.net/xp-sp3-update-pack-contents.html) and tweak some settings, remove some components, and use driverpacks base to integrate the drivers, after i'm completly done with nlite.
Also I don't use an ISO, but use unattended (from unattended.sourceforge.net) to boot via the network.
I see driverpacks base creates an OEM directory in my XP 'cd', thus having I386 and OEM next to eachother. Driverpack base does get it hooks into the i386 properly as it complains about the missing files.
I am running a test now with the 'OEM Preinstall' option, but, I did have 'OemPreinstall=Yes' in my unattended file ...
P.S. why would you feel dirty? I don't think there's easier ways or 'compatible with driverpacks base' ways to strip out components etc other than using nlite 
I think I've actually figured it out 
presetup.cmd gets called just fine appearantly, but neither nlite nor driverpack-base are to blame. I'm using the nt5x-install script via unattended and it only copies i386 to the future C: drive. It does not copy the OEM dir!
So i will try method1 now, but I may get into character issues, or patch nt5x-install script ... Maybe dosemu works better and does copy the OEM dirs. The <XPcd>\OEM path isn't an officially used and expected path is it?
cmpnents does get copied properly, looking at the script. I will test editing the presetup.cmd to do everything via cmpnents to see if that's the culprit.
So then, what would be the more recommended way, 'fix' unattended's nt5x-install script, to also copy an OEM dir, next to either an I386 or AMD64 dir, (OEM dir could be for either?), keep it under I386 and have it automatically copied, or use a more meaning full name, <XPcd>\driverpacks.