The agreed thought about Office 2003 is that it doesn't have anything new that's useful. Yet it requires more RAM, 2k/XP (no 98), and costs plenty (as have all versions).
Many (including me) think that Office
97 had enough in it. Well, maybe 2000...maybe.
P.S. Not only OpenOffice, but AbiWord and Gnumeric, which come with GNOME, work very well for me.