Legacy software installation problems

> I have an old Dell PC which I had Office 97 preloaded on
> the h/d. I recently upgraded to Win XP and I cannot
> reinstall my Office 97. I have an Office 2000 upgrade
> which I also received from Dell as part of a free offer.
>
> After I run the setup wizard and attempt to run...say
> Word, I get an error message that says I must install the
> software.
>
> Is this a licensing problem that is unique to XP? It's
> possible that XP thinks I have a pirated copy of the
> software since the original Office 97 was registered with
> Microsoft? I can't think of any other reason since all
> my other non Microsoft programs were reinstalled with no
> problems.