If the remote conversion doesn't work, try going the other way, install the Converter on the 2000 machine and move it to either a USB drive, or a mounted network drive.
Also make sure you try running the program as an administrator, and also try creating a new local user with administrative privileges on run it as that user (worked once for me).
If that doesn't work, the offline converter CD is your last chance for these old machines. Hopefully you are a VMware Partner or have a contact at a VMware Partner that send you that iso image (not publicly available AFAIK).
Regard,
Larus.