UPDATE.... well I played with it a bit more... let it do all the updates. I tried the most recent graphics driver version, but no improvement... I think the graphics card is just too old. I would call this a "successful failure"... in a way it did give me a more updated system than what I had with Linux, but was not really what I wanted. Still have not activated... not sure I am going to keep it (might save this copy of XP for a better computer.)

Does anyone know..... is there a better AGP card I could use, or is AGP going to be the limiting factor. Currently, the video card is a Radeon 9600SE.

As far as "bloatware" goes ... I don't necessarily mind upgrading..... but tired of having it forced on me just so they can make more money. What can can windows 7 really do that XP cannot... that is worthy of the greatly increased hardware requirements????? What was the point in changing the Word format (other than so you will have you get the new version to open the file someone just sent you, which of course requires a newer OS, which of course cannot run on your current computer?)

ncmark wrote:

What was the point in changing the Word format (other than so you will have you get the new version to open the file someone just sent you, which of course requires a newer OS, which of course cannot run on your current computer?)

Fortunately for that particular subject, there is a solution: download and install "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats".
Link

Edit:
Install next to Office 2000 / XP / 2003.
Opens Office 2013 / 2010 / 2007 formats (background conversion).

Office 2010 works fine on Windows XP, but XP as a daily driver is stupid today. Windows 7 is I find far faster and stable than XP, as long as your hardware isn't crap, as well as improved security. To be on the internet basically demands security patches and something that has barely been touched in /14/ years is not an ideal vessel. Look at SNI, TLSv1.2....

Speaking of Windows 7, I loaded it on a T42 I acquired recently. After some rain dances to get the GPU driver working, it's smooth on such hardware. You can do daily driver tasks on it OK. On my P3, it's OK as long as you can throw an 820 with 1 GB RAM at it.

ncmark wrote:

What was the point in changing the Word format

Many were increasingly concerned about Office not using an "open" format that would not be readily usable over the long term (and some were even contemplating switching to OpenOffice as a result). The change was Microsoft's attempt to address the issue, with highly questionable results. But that's a story for another day.

Office supports OpenDocument. I know because for some reason, people send me ODTs.

calvin wrote:

Office 2010 works fine on Windows XP, but XP as a daily driver is stupid today. Windows 7 is I find far faster and stable than XP, as long as your hardware isn't crap

Surprise, surprise our hardware is crap.. :s
I'd pay for another OS that just uses 128MB of RAM.. but not even newer linux versions seems to beat it.

ncmark wrote:

UPDATE.... well I played with it a bit more... let it do all the updates. I tried the most recent graphics driver version, but no improvement... I think the graphics card is just too old. I would call this a "successful failure"... in a way it did give me a more updated system than what I had with Linux, but was not really what I wanted. Still have not activated... not sure I am going to keep it (might save this copy of XP for a better computer.)

Does anyone know..... is there a better AGP card I could use, or is AGP going to be the limiting factor. Currently, the video card is a Radeon 9600SE.

As far as "bloatware" goes ... I don't necessarily mind upgrading..... but tired of having it forced on me just so they can make more money. What can can windows 7 really do that XP cannot... that is worthy of the greatly increased hardware requirements????? What was the point in changing the Word format (other than so you will have you get the new version to open the file someone just sent you, which of course requires a newer OS, which of course cannot run on your current computer?)

As I said, I'm also using an old rig with XP. Pentium 4 1.6GHz and Radeon 7500LE.
I can barely watch 360p youtube videos smoothly, but for everything else it's pretty fine. I mean, I can even play Zuma's Revenge from steam! (thanks to exist software renderers)

Now, it's not technically the same of your situation given driver support stopped in may 2006 with catalyst 6.5 (6.6 if you use NGO optimized 1.6.6) but if I'm able to keep going with that.. What are your annoyances?
Tbh I am using early 2004 Omega custom drivers since I believe later that year driver memory requirement increased of about 25MB.
And I have also find that if I open the control panel (which is embedded in Windows own display advanced settings, not CCC) and set everything I can from quality to high performance 3Dmark2000 score goes from ~3050 to ~3560

The minimum requirements for Office 2010 can be met by hardware from 2000, as long as it's upgraded. My 867 Mhz Coppermine with 512 MB RAM has no problems.

Ultimately, the world moves on and sometimes things have to be left behind to move forward. Even then, we're at a plateau of hardware mostly advancing in power efficiency, concurrency and price rather than speed. Software's minimum requirements have gone down, allowing decade-old hardware to run modern software fine. The requirements for Windows 8.1's RAM demands have been halved back to 1 GB, thanks to cheap x86 tablets.

Speaking of cheap x86 tablets, you can get a full x86 computer running legitimate Windows for $80 dollars. You can usually find Core 2 (the minimum I consider for a modern zero-compromise experience) class systems for $35 or less. I've had people give me dual-core Athlon 64s. If you're still using a Willamette P4 or absolute-bottom-end Northwood, you have problems.

luckybob wrote:

I'd like someone to explain to me WHY people keep trying to browse the internet on outdated computers, and then wonder why it doesn't work. this notion that the internet should not change in its 20+ year life is baffling. Now if you CAN'T acquire a more modern machine, I'm sorry, but other than that, why subject yourself to the headache? Just because you built a 2004 computer and connected it to the internet, doesn't mean you get a 2004 internet.

Well I can't explain it, but I too feel the urge to build some Internet dedicated PC with old parts and linux, I can't control myself. But I will.

Early core 2 DUO systems are just about given away these days so its not like its an expensive upgrade your forced to make.

At least the upgrades cycles are growing wider and wider.

Exactly. Your 386DX from 1990 would not run Windows 2000 well, if at all. A Core 2 Duo from 2006 will run Windows 10 without problems.