I still like 98.  Service pack 1 is coming out for XP soon and will help it but I don't like the mandatory "product activation" or registration for home edition.  It looks like crap unless you tweak the thunder out of it but it does have some neat new utilites.  Avoid ME by all means and I think win 2k is too slow for a home user (IMHO).  XP would be the only other one I would think about other than 98 but that's a close race.  I've had some problems with games on XP even with the compatiblity options.