Well, taken the plunge into 2003.
Found this guide to setting up 2003 to act as a workstation...
http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/index.htm

Nice & simple to go through, managed to be watching DVD's and playing games in no time at all. All ya need to is pretty much enable Direct 3D, and then configure everything to run optimally, like services atc. background tasks can always slow things down a little.
Only thing i haven't managed to do yet is install any visual styles. Went through patching the uxtheme.dll fine, but am confused a little as to what and how i install a style?¿ probably missing something fairly obviouse.

Coffee.