Oldest Version of Word that works on Windows 7

I have an old copy of MS Works Office Suite 2001 with MS Word 2000 on it, that I have not installed on anything. I'm wondering if it will work on Windows 7. I didn't find a compatibility list for 7 on MS site (it must be too early in the development cycle). Has anyone tried using older versions of Office (or the Office Works Suite, which is a different creature) on Windows 7?

 

Which means that its development cycle is 7 years already

OK that's good news so I won't have to buy an office suite for my next laptop. OpenOffice continues to underwhelm me.

 

I recall calling someone at the Microsoft Store (or was it Dell?) about the two... and the guy told me there really wasn't that much of a difference. I do recall him saying that mail merge was one of the features that didn't come with the Works version. I'm not a power user by any means, but I'm no newbie to word either and I don't recall ever coming across things that I wanted to do, that I read about, in the "advanced" version of Word, that I couldn't do in the version that came with Works. I've got this old version of Word and I'm thinking of saving myself the cost of Office 2007 on the next computer. I'll of course d/l a copy of it for a trial version. But if I don't take to the ribbons, this is what I can do....