XML is a standard for "marking up" data; formatting and organizing it. It is not a programming language, so you cannot create socket connections or query databases with it. A lot of its hype is based on the hope that people will agree on data standards, like one of the ones I work on:
http://gems.mines.edu/~reactionxml/. SOAP is a protocol (as http and smtp are protocols) for wrapping an XML message to be sent over the internet as, e.g., a remote method invocation. You can think of it as an inefficient form of rpc which hopes to leverage XML, platform independence, and web services to become a Big Thing.
Hope this helps,
Glenn
[ January 15, 2002: Message edited by: Glenn Murray ]
[ January 15, 2002: Message edited by: Glenn Murray ]
[ January 15, 2002: Message edited by: Glenn Murray ]