Vista Hardware Independent Imaging

By the very nature of Vista it is hardware independant. The only reason why XP wasn't is becuase of the different hardware abstraction layers. Vista can get around that. There is documentation on how to use ImageX and create a Vista image that yuo can then update with new hardware drivers as they are made available. That image can be deployed to all hardware types and work.

Vista is hardware-independent, but it doesn't mean it will run.  The Universal Imaging Utility handles all the problems that can cause system problems when you iimage to disparate platforms - audio and video, PNP devices, SATA and SCSI drivers, and so on.