Good luck! MS Office 2008 is definitely less problematic under SL. However, 2004 Excel crashes are very rare, AFAIK. If you want to communicate with other Office users, may I suggest that you save the files in the old version (compatibility mode, without the X in the end). This way, they can be read directly by Office 2004 that is still widespread.
Yes. I intend to do just that. Thanks.