Whenever Microsoft is asked to put a firm date for the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3, the official answer is "first half of 2008" - which means sometime between now and June 30. Today, however, the folks at Neowin were able to get the release schedule for the highly anticipated update and it looks like the RTM version of SP3 is set to arrive before the end of the month.
The news of the SP3 release schedule comes just weeks after Microsoft gave Windows XP a two-year extension on life - for OEMs that plan to include the OS in "ultra-low-cost personal computers," that is. Though nothing has been officialy confirmed by Microsoft as of yet, if Neowin's sources are accurate, OEMs, volume license customers, Connect, MSDN and TechNet subscribers will have access to SP3 on April 21, while the general public will have to wait until April 29.