3GB for all of the above, plus a whole bunch of development libraries for whenever I feel like compiling my kernel, GTK, QT or other applications. Not bad at all, considering that M$-Windows XP and M$-Office XP alone need that much to be functional...
Microsoft core application have traditionally been tightly bound to the OS itself. This means that when Windows XP loads, components that are used in IE or Office are already pre-loaded. That's why installing/uninstalling/upgrading/patching any M$ core application (like IE and Office) is extremely tricky. The entire OS can be destabilized or simply rendered useless by a change in an application!