and 10 should all be fine for development on Windows 2000,
Programs linked by VC++ 2010 aren't supported by Windows 2000 and XP SP1 (without special treatment that replaces DecodePointer with a dummy function), so Visual Studio 2010 isn't all fine for development there.
If you take the Express editions, you can choose between versions 2008 and 2010, which can be downloaded from Microsoft. The 2005 Exoress edition can still be downloaded, but not directly from Microsoft and you need to search for it, that's why I pointed to 2008 edition and not 2005.
I currently develop with Visual C++ / C# Express 2005, Visual C++ / C# Express 2008, Visual C++ / C# Express 2010 on Windows XP SP3.