Office '97 was released in late 1996. You are running software that is nearly 8 years old on the latest operating system. Thats really pushing it where computing is concerned.
Office 97 was designed to run on Windows 95. That is 4 operating systems ago. (Win 98, Win 98 SE, Win 2k, WinXP.) I hate to be the Microsoft salesman, but its either time to upgrade Office or downgrade your operating system.
IMHO
Uh. . .why ? Does Office 97 do what the user wants ? If there is no compelling need to upgrade, then upgrading helps nothing but Microsoft.
Hell, my OVEN is 14 years old, but guess what, it still cooks dinner just fine: by your argument, it's time to run over to Home Depot and buy a new one. . .