What a joke. I recently switched from 98 to 2k (complete format of my hd first, of course). I think it's less stable. I get more crashes and safe mode doesn't even work. That's with all the certified drivers and whatnot. I was really expecting something different, but it has all the same graphical and usability glitches that 98 had (icons flashing in and out of existence during boot up, still loading for eons after the desktop has popped up), and it has no less than FOUR "now starting windows 2000" screens.
I'm with Enahs, sounds like you need more ram. Min 128, 256 is better, and if it were me (and you plan to game with it), get a gig of memory. You may not use all of that today, but it'll come in handy down the road.
If safe mode doesn't work, something is majorly f$%&ed with the box.
You didn't do an upgrade, did you? I don't trust those (AT ALL). Nuke the partition and start over...
http://www.craigarmstrong.com