I'm looking for a freeware program that will read .doc files on Windows XP. Preferably something small and easy to use.

While it is not small OpenOffice.org is free and it can open, edit, and save Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Yep! I would actually recommend NeoOffice over OpenOffice. They are both free and they're both exactly the same code, but OpenOffice is a Linux program that will only work in OS X if you have X11 installed. It also has Linux-style buttons and menus and dialogs, so it can be frustrating for Mac users (the open and save dialogs can be really funky).

NeoOffice is OpenOffice compiled for Mac rather than Linux. You don't need X11 installed to run it, and all the buttons and menus and such are OS X looking rather than Linux looking. It also runs a bit faster in my experience.

As of version 3.0 (Intel only) this is no longer the case. PPC Macs need version 2.x, which remains X11 dependent. Version 3 made additional changes making it more Mac-like than its predecessors, but I don't know to what extent your reservations regarding OO vs NO still apply.

I mean while running from within Windows XP, not the Mac OS.

I guess NeoOffice has a Windows version, though I was hoping for something smaller to download.

I think Tacit was assuming you would be running Windows under VMFusion or Parallels Desktop in compatibility mode where you can move freely between OS X and Windows apps. NeoOffice does not have a Windows version which is why I recommended OpenOffice.org which does have a Windows version. If you are running in compatibility mode TextEdit will handle most Word .doc files and it is already installed as part of OS X.

Granted NeoOffice and either the Windows or Mac version of OpenOffice are a big download, but they offer excellent Word compatibility along with the Excel and Powerpoint compatibility.