I just tested this with a local attached HP990CSe printer. Works fine. When the unit is powered down the device within WinXp goes into an "offline" state. Onced powered up the device is placed back into "Online" and the jobs prints.
I haven't tested a shared printer across a network, but likely will function the same. As for a true network attached printer, I would expect to see the device on your workstation to be placed in offline mode as well. Depending upon which printer, you may get an error - failed to print message.
What problems are you having.