A clean clean clean fresh install of Windows 2000 is now up and running. It's kind of funny to think that I've finished installing my "necessities" and have 20gb more space free than I did pre-format. I can't think of where all that space went.
Anyhow, I haven't had a chance to play ET yet (have to download paks, ugh..) but I'll post back here if the problem is still lingering..