Downloads In Windows98 SE With IE

What has happened is I tried to download something from tech republic. It downloaded fine. It is a zip file. When I went to open the file it asked me what program I wanted to use to open it. I thought it was a text file so I opened it in MSWORD 2000and it put it in some strange code. Now every time I download something from tech republic it defaults to MSWORD 2000. I need to know how to change this and what program I need to open the downloadable files from this site. Thanks.