Converting WinAmp (M3U) Playlists Into iTunes (XML) Playlists

Hi. I was wondering if someone could help me out with suggestions on converting my old WinAmp (.m3u) playlists into usable iTunes (.xml) playlists?

I have Windows XP Pro (with the latest Windows updates), and a brand new iPod 160 Gig Classic.

I have used WinAmp as my media player for the longest time. The reason that I haven't created playlists in iTunes is because:

It took me years to customize these Winamp playlists exactly how I want them (you know how that is).

iTunes is a huge program that tends to takes up too many system resources on my PC. I have an older PC, and don't have the time or money to invest in a new system, copy files, set it up, etc.

iTunes somehow modifies an mp3 whenever it is played in iTunes ( I can see that it has been modified in the "Date Modified" column, where my mp3 files are located).

Historically - up until the last year or so, iTunes has not had too much of a problem faithfully importing my Winamp playlists into iTunes (to be transferred onto my iPod).

So, I just got off the phone with Apple Technical Support, Tier 2. I told him that I had the latest version of iTunes (version 10), installed yesterday.

I successfully imported my 90 Gigs of mp3's into the iTunes "Music Library" without a problem.

The problem arose today when I tried to import one of my WinAmp (.m3u) playlists into iTunes, so that I could copy the playlist over onto my iPod. I've done this dozens of times. I've already tried uninstalling and then reinstalling iTunes.

Like I said, I really want to keep these playlists it took a long time to customize the occurrence and frequency of favorite mp3's into those playlists.

The technician said that the latest release of iTunes won't work with Winamp (m3u) playlists. I asked him if he thought it would work again if I downloaded an older version of iTunes. He said that with the new iPod Classic that I have, it will not work with older versions of iTunes (I have no idea why), so that's out. He suggested Googling an "m3u to xml file converter."

I checked on Google and saw a lot of programs that will convert xml files to m3u file format (for reasons unknown to me), but I haven't had any luck online finding a file converter that will faithfully convert my WinAmp (.m3u) playlists TO iTunes (.xml) playlists to use instead, and make iTunes run smoother. Any suggestions?*

* Keep in mind that I'd really prefer to convert my m3u playlists, rather than create all new iTunes playlists from scratch.

Thanks.