mixed XP and W2K enviroment

On the subject of XP, I've now got a mixed XP and W2K
environment (2 + 3),
which gives me a problem, in that the machines won't talk
to each (2k->XP).
WXP doesn't have a peer network protocol (e.g. Netbeui
which is great).
TCP/IP is very cumbersome for peer networks with fixed IPs
and more often
than not won't work. I can occasionally "see" another PC
that hasn't got
Netbeui bound, but won't allow access to any shared
resources. I appears
that TCP/IP hasn't got a routing table to refer to. Any
ideas? without
adding a separate box to work as a DHCP server?