I see really bad advice being given about Win ME in this subject. I have ME installed on my computers since it was first released. Got all the updates and it runs fantastically well for me.
I think some who are giving you bad advice about ME are most likely only parroting what they think is what others want to hear. Wrong!
Win ME is the most stable of all Windows released so far. I started out with Win 3.0, 3.11, Win95, Win98, Win98 SE and now Win ME. So I do have some experience with Windows.
I did have Win NT 4 installed and did not like it as it was not as stable as Win95 was. I got rid of NT and was happier with Win95 and all the rest of the Win upgrades.
Go with Win ME as it is by far the best ever Windows released.
Win2K is seriously sick as one can read all the problems notes on Anandtech about it.
JL