I'm looking for the best solution for performing one-way replication
between one MS SQL2000 database server (the master) and one or two other (warm
standby) databases.  The warm standby databases should always be up to
date (near real-time) to the master.

Microsoft has built-in "transactional replication" in SQL server 2000.
 This appears to to exactly what I'm looking for.

What I would like to know is if this feature of SQL server 2000 is
considered reliable by actual IT Operations people (not just by
Microsoft).  Is it in use by large numbers of mission-critical
software applications?  Alternatively, if it is not in use, is some
3rd party software being used for this purpose?