I think an age and a half ago I found some program here on GD that allowed some basic winXP visual style settings to be applied for windows 2000, the taskbar/buttons etc would change colour but would not have those awfull graphics. I've been using it in windows XP as sort of a compromise, giving me the classic XP style with the XP colours. I've lost this program in a HD crash a long time ago, and tonight I formatted my HD and reinstalled windows XP.
I'm not sure, but I think I got the program of this board, if anyone still has it please post me a link or pm me on IRC, its a german program, not very big, thats all I can remember
PS I actually posted it on GD but that has been split since into GD and Programming Discussions, so I figure the people that might have saved this program are more Programming Discussions people than GD people.