I'll disagree slightly with Arvin, just to be different. <g>
Access 97 will run without problems on WinXP. However, it's possible that
the upgrade could break your References. Access is extremely sensitive that
References be the same version and in the same location. If you're using any
References other than the three basic ones (Visual Basic For Applications,
Microsoft Access 8.0 Object Library and Microsoft DAO 3.51 Object Library),
it's possible that your application could have problems. It's difficult to
resolve References problems with the runtime (since you can't go in and
change References using the runtime)
Check
http://members.rogers.com/douglas.j.steele/AccessReferenceErrors.html
for details