Thanks for all your suggestions folks, but I have been given chapter and verse from Vlad in Russia, and it works like this......
first copy all your CDG files to a new folder. (Never use the Originals)
Making sure that you have installed the ASP.NET files from your XP disks, you use a facility called BULK RENAME from
www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk. and rename all your CDG files to BIN files.
You then use a product called MP3+G Toolz from
www.activeaspsoftware.net
which will take the renamed file and split it into two components, one is the music as an MP3 file, and the other is a Graphics file. it takes approximately 15 seconds to convert each file, and you can do batches of any size if you like.
After conversion, just delete all the files in the folder except the MP3 ones.
I have just converted 2,700 files in around 15 hours.
Both these utilities are FREE,
The results are that you get MP3 files that are comparable with the originals.
Hope this is some use to somebody!!!