i dont honestly know the answer to that, 2000 pro is quite stable for Lightwave, but is known to be iffy with games.
it realy depends on what you want from the os, for the best result buy a small but fast hdd install win 2k pro install lightwave also, keep that as simple as possible with only your lw work on there.
this way you can have xp as your general os and 2k as your development os.
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