Word 2000 freezes on AMD 4800 X2 PC with 2 GB of memory

Word 2000 tells me there is insufficient memory on the above PC running XP Media Center.
Any hints on what is causing this?

(I am now thinking of buying a later version of Word.)

(I saw this same error before on a K6-2 550 PC with 512 MB of memory and never did find an exact cause.)