if you don't have any sites that are being used, why upgrade? The upgrade
process from 2003 to 2010 is not a straight forward process, unless you buy
some of the utilities that are availble. Also if you decide to upgrade to
SP2010, you will need to meet the minimum software and hardware requirement.

I agree why upgrade if you don't have any site?

You will first need to upgrade to WSS x64 on Windows 2003, which requires you
have a server running x64 Windows and x64 WSS 3.

Then you will need to upgrade from x 64 WSS 3 to x64 SPf 2010, which will need
to be on another server.

My poor server is only 32bit. There is no way to upgrade a Windows 2003 server
from 32 to 64 bit, right?

Unfortunately no. You need to have an actual 64 bit processor and the
memory it can support to install SharePoint2010.

Agreed. Why upgrade? Start from scratch!

I was thinking about that too; y'all are right, there is not reason to
upgrade. But can I install sharepoint services 2010 for free then? I don't
know if wss3 came with server2003 or not; I didn't install them and don't know
where it came from; but now I have sort of inherited the server administration
and have to learn everything new.
So then, I should download sharepoint services 2010, uninstall wss3 and
install the new version. I already know how to set up sites.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is free and you can download it here:

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx
a0b4-3bb429b46595

Foundation is the equivalent to WSS. SharePoint Server 2010 must be
purchased and is the equivalent for MOSS.

Thank you very much! That answered my exact question. I knew there was a
difference between Sharepoint Services and Sharepoint Server; but I did not know
Sharepoint Services was the same as Sharepoint Foundation.

So what installation file do I use (I want free!)? Google search turns up all
kinds of things with similar names.

The answer is yes, you can upgrade to the SharePoint Foundation 2010 for
free. However, since you do not have any active sites, you will want to
start fresh with a clean install instead of upgrading. Upgrading from
2003 to 2010 is not a smooth process and cannot be done directly. You
will need to use some third party tools for an upgrade.

I have a link on my blog:
1wisegeek.com/.../

(Which by the way isn't very professional, but is more of a notes storage for
me.)

Okay, I figured out that I cannot install Sharepoint 2010 on our server because
it requires 64bit and Server2008, whereas our server is only 32bit and running
Server2003. Okay, I also found that our server is running wss2, although wss3
was installed too. So I uninstalled wss2, but I can't get wss3 to work; it says
it has a problem loading the database. I don't know what database to load,
anyways. There are a few website folders in the iis with sharepoint stuff in
them, and I don't think we need any of them, although I believe one of them was
the central admin for wss2; and likely one was central admin for wss3. After
everybody is gone from the office I will uninstall absolutely everything
sharepoint and start all over from scratch with wss3.

if your server is x64 capable, reformat and reinstall

One thing to keep in mind is that x64 drivers must be signed. If you have some
off the wall or older hardware then you are out of luck.

Okay, that should bring this thread to an end. Conclusion: I can't upgrade
Sharepoint on my server without a lot of upgrade and reformatting. My next
thread will be on how to install wss3 and get it to work. What a headache this
is!