Captain.Bob, with Windows 2000 and avast 4.5, you should have a new mail detection that works automatically.
Please, set up your email account just as avast does not exists. It will detect the pop3/smpt/imap ports and scan your messages.
About the clean notes into the message body, can you try 'Settings' on my signature?
UseAlternateRtfSyncing value under [MailScanner] section.