That sounds like the right order.
This is what should happen:
When Windows XP is installed it will install NT Loader with the one entry of Windows XP.
Then when Windows Vista is installed the Windows Boot Loader will be installed with an entry for NT Loader and Windows XP.
Then when SUSE is installed the GRUB or LILO boot loader is installed with the entries Other OS and SUSE Linux.

So to get to each OS in the menu these will be the paths in the end when the computer boots:
Other OS->Legacy OS->Windows XP - Boot Windows XP
Other OS->Windows Vista - Boot Windows Vista
SUSE Linux - Boot SUSE Linux.

Some of the entries with likely be labeled differently but work the same.
You may have other issues with the partitions if you want to share data between them with the different OSes.
Windows XP/Vista can't read the Linux ext3 filesystem by default. Though there is a driver that provides basic reading for them.
Linux can read NTFS and sometimes write to it. It's not perfect write support though.
Also when booting Windows XP the Restore Points/Previous Versions on the Windows Vista partition will be wiped out.

As long as the partitions are a fairly good size like a least 10GB for XP and 15GB for Vista there shouldn't be any reliability or performance problems.
There maybe some issues like the weird submenus on boot and the Windows Vista restore points being lost on booting Windows XP.
There maybe other unexpected issues too. I'm not sure what they would all be though.

If you have a recovery disc then you shouldn't need the recovery partition.
Note: I say should as I'm not 100% sure. Most of time from what I've seen the recovery disc and recovery partition do the same thing but some stuff can very from one computer to the next.

jd, regarding recovery disks and recovery partitions I have made the following observations:
1. A recovery disk burnt from my own HP recovery partition will rebuild a recovery partition with system restore
2. A recovery disk shipped from Gateway will also build a recovery partition
3. A recovery disk shipped by Dell will not build a recovery partition. It will assign the whole disk space to the OS partition.
I think the Dell approach makes sense, especially if you have a small internal disk.

An original MS installation disk does not create a recovery partition either ( at least not with a "Recovery" folder in it). You can assign space for D: for backing up files into it. That's why D: is set as the default for file backup and a lot of people fall into that trap with an OEM recovery partition - which really should not be used for that (with OEM) because there is usually not enough space.

So does this mean if I install Vista again I have to create my own recovery partition as well?

If you have to install (which means you have an installation/repair dvd), then no. It seems that only systems that come with the OS installed (and no cd's) have to have one

mpc, my guess would be that you keep your recovery partition with the factory restore (provided you do that from the recovery partition you have now - not a Dell CD). With an original MS installation disk, you get no recovery partition. At best you get an empty D:.
@Lighthouse, I am somewhat confused about your posting - especially the "no" at the end of the first sentence. And then, it's a little bit more mixed. Some CD's create a recovery partition, some don't.

ok, thanks on that info guys, i formatted my drive and loaded Xp and Vista, i left some unpartioned space for suse as i wanna make sure that everything with XP and vista is working fine before i load suse..

so i've been using XP as my main OS but every so often, i get the blue screen of death something about system memory dump, it jus flashes and reboots, maybe twice or thrice before it boots proper, any reason on y this is happening?

i havnt used vista yet, but i can login..

Thanks JD, i had the same problem, the blue screen flashing and restarting. Now your instructions should help me!