NT4 PDC replaced by Win2K w/o AD?

We are currently running NT 4 on a 5 year old server that is our PDC. We have 7 people that connect to the domain.
We are looking to buy a Dell Server running Win2K.
If we run the Win 2K Server without Active Directory and no local DNS, will we be able to replicate the User Accts from our NT4 domain controller, then remove it from the domain and have the Win2K server handle domain logins?
Or is AD the only way to handle domain logins in Win2K?