Many thanks to all you kind folks who volunteer your time to help others and specifically those who tried to help me. It is greatly appreciated. As it turns out, all I really needed to get my Office (2003) XP Pro activated is the activation phone number. This number was not provided when I was forced to activate the product by phone, after I determined the internet activation would not work. After a bit more surfing, I came across this MS website for customer service:
http://www.contacthelp.com/directory...?ListingID=224

Note that the above URL does not post properly: after "...directory" in the URL, the address should be: /Microsoft?ListingID=224

On this webpage is the activation phone number I needed. I called this number, entered the required code and Presto-Chango, my product was immediately activated. For any of you out there that might have the same problem, try this phone number from the web page: 866-542-3062 which gets you to an automated process to active your product.