i have Adobe Audition 2.0 and a few other softwares that i thought
would be compatible with Windows 2003 but apparently they aren't. Is
there any way to cheat the setup? i recall there was some attrbutes
that could be edited in .ini files.

I've just installed Adobe Audition 2.0 on my Windows Server 2003 SP1
platform so here's the tweak:

1. Extract all files on Audition CD to a temporary install directory
on your hard drive.

2. Download and install Orca.

* Orca is a Microsoft utility that allows you to play with MSI files.
* You can get some information about Orca at
http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?articleid=Q107066.
* You can download Orca from Microsoft site or from
http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/Forms/AllItems.aspx. It is
exactly the same file (version 3.1.4000.1830) included in Platform SDK
for Windows 2003 SP1.

3. Modify "Adobe Audition 2.0.msi".

* Locate your_temp_instll_dir\Adobe Audition 2.0\Adobe Audition
2.0.msi. Open it with Orca.
* Go to Edit->Find, search for the string "WindowsBuild>2600".
* You will find two occurrences, both of which are part of a
conditional expression used to determine whether the OS is supported
or not.
* For each occurrence, simply right click on the line and select "Drop row".
* Save the file. It's done.

4. Install Audition the usual way and happy ending, execpt that this
is just an unofficial tweak, it's not expected be supported by Adobe
or Microsoft or yours sincerely, and I'm not supposed to be hold
responsible for blah blah blah...

it is so cool. ^_^