Replication in Accesss 2000

I have just set up 3 machine’s networked in a workgroup running windows XP. All machine’s use a common Access datafile which is password protected.
However I wanted to be able to create a Master file to Replicate/syncronise the datafile to all PC’s, however Access is telling me the file CAN NOT be replicated as a Master file due to the “Password protection”…is there any way around this???
Any ideas?