update and licence of new version

[meier]

hello

I have office 97 professional and would like to update to office xp or
2003 I have a desk top and a lap top both with work 7
I need word excel and access.
I thought I needed one version of the update and I would be legally ok
, if I buy a non oem version is it right ?

Don't seem to be able to find a french update as a pack for 2003
though
does it exist at all ?
is the 2003 version really better than xp ?

thank you for a way out of this jungle

tam