I bumped this topic because I'm having a somewhat similar problem.

If the text on a webpage is defined by size="1" or similar, it appears much larger than it should, probably about 2 sizes larger. This doesn't happen when I use Netscape, but I prefer IE.

Obviously, one of the first things I did was try to change the setting in the View menu. But, oddly, none of the options are checked and won't become checked. I have all the updates installed except XP service pack 2 (it messed up my access to some internet sites, namely my university e-mail, which I need to access, so I uninstalled it). This problem has been going on for quite a while, though I can't exactly say when, since I didn't have the internet from late October to mid January.

Any ideas? This only occurs in IE, and I don't want to change the font size for every program.