I'm also having problems installing.
My *ahem* backup 10.3 CDs aren't booting; 10.2 is but there are "problems installing the software; please try again". I suspect a flaky CD drive. I tried my hard-rubbish-day Pioneer DVDR, but that doesn't appear to be bootable. Next attempt will be a slower CD drive, because that seemed to help last time on the beige.
Dunno if it's relevant or not but the drive I'm installing to is 160GB. I've formatted the space that can be seen (132GB) into four partitions.
I do have a PCI ATA controller and a SCSI card, but I don't know if they are supported under OS X or not, so I haven't tried to install them yet.
Right now DiskWarrior is having a go at repairing the 10.2 HD out of my beige.