Yes, I know this was probably discussed about 200 years ago, but my search of the forum didn't turn up anything useful.

My situation is this - after years of diligently ignoring new developments in music technology, a situation has arisen whereby it would now be really convenient if I could record CD tracks (for personal use, I hasten to add) from my computer's CD-ROM drive and store them on the hard disk for later transfer to an MP3 player, as and when I get one...

Does anyone have any recommendations as to how to do this? I am prepared to buy any necessary software (but would prefer freeware, obviously).

I have rather elderly PC running Windows 98. It has an integral 12x CD-ROM drive.

Sorry if this sounds so basic - I feel a real idiot for having to ask people to waste time on this, but I know that you can always find a friend on the 'Cat!