Bochs

Bochs (pronounce "box") is a PC emulator which works on near every kind of computer and OS:

Windows
Linux
Sparc
PPC (or MacIntosh)

The product is mature, and I have installed it on Windows and on Linux Mandrake 9.2, even if (once installed) it remains difficult to configure if you’re a newbie.

With this software, you will reach the following possibilities:

Linux on Windows [1]
Windows on Windows [2]
Linux on Linux
Windows on Linux [3]
etc.

But don’t imagine that you will get a reproduction of your very own PC... it emulates "an average PC" but not the one it is working on... More, its performance are dependant of your configuration choice about the RAM work allocation.

As a result it’s a good solution for your last MS windows softwares (those that you won’t or can’t let down).. and the main interesting feature will be that your "MS Windows PC" will run during the same time that runs your Linux pc (both on one machine)... and blue screen will only be a feature of the Bochs/MS windows virtual one.

Caution:

accept "demo-linux" installation, it would be usefull as an example for your "second" OS installation configuration

for an installation on Linux, a Windows 2000 OS need 8 Gb to work in a "comfortable" configuration (but as you have a limited number of Windows softwares, you won’t need more), a separate partition would also be also a good idea

[1] under a regular MS windows licence

[2] under a regular MS windows licences

[3] under a regular MS windows licence