Not having defragged since 1998, I can only imagine that it would be a good idea to do it now!
Wow! thats a long time. I just got my system cleaned up after a lot of effort, been following ur thread. Though not as old as yours, mine was badly cluttered too. Never did anything about it till recently, the thing started hanging on every operation. As someone mentioned here, i didnt think it would affect performance , but i think it does, and badly so. I think i narrowly managed to avoid the drive from dying before i backed up.Going to get a new drive now and planning to prevent this fragmentation disease right from the start.