You might try uninstalling one or two of the most recent "old favourites" that you loaded up. Often they put their own *.dll files in place of the system files and they don't get on with the Operating System. Also, Windows ME is pretty well a genuine 32 bit OS and doesn't take kindly to some 16 bit (eg Windows 95) Applications.
Interestingly, ME boasts 100 or so *.vxd files - virtual device drivers - whereas Windows 2000 has only three. It's wrong to think of the Operating Systems as being like one another. You can't take liberties.