PROBLEM:  You Are Prompted for a Password When You Open an Office Document in a Browser.

SYMPTOMS:  When you open an Office 2000 document or follow a hyperlink to an Office 2000 document in a Web browser, you may be prompted to enter a password. If you click Cancel or type the user name and password, the document opens as read-only.

SOLUTION:  To resolve this problem, obtain Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a).

NOTE: You may need to type the user name and password multiple times before the document is opened in the Web browser. To obtain SR-1/SR-1a, visit www.microsoft.com and view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 245025 OFF2000: How to Obtain and Install Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a)

STATUS:  Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1/SR-1a.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q225234