site upgrade planning

Now that I should have some more time on my hands, I am looking at possibly upgrading my site a bit. I seem to alternate between back-end updates and front-end design updates, and I’m overdue for both. However, I still like the site design, so I think it is time to jump into a back-end upgrade.
I am looking at blog systems that I can install. Currently I run on Apache with PHP4 (it might be 3!) with Movable Type 1.4 using flat files instead of a database backend on a very stable Windows 2000 Pro box. Movable Type fit my bill exactly, back in the day, but then quickly went commercial and I’m not really willing to pay for something like this. I also have Perl installed, and am willing to update all of these components (I would prefer to keep Windows 2000 though, simply because it is stable, I can get it free, and I’m intimately familiar with it).
My requirements/wishlist, for my own edification:
– easy posting from anywhere (u/p login)
– optional comments…bonus: toggle comments per entry as opposed to per site
– MSDE/SQL 2000 (preferably MSDE) backend with little administration needed
– php-based, but something that requires very little tinkering and coding other than templates/layouts
– the ability to make everything very minimized/minimalistic, from archives, comments, to posts, and the whole blog itself
One thing that is a bit flexible for this version of Movable Type was not just having multiple blogs, but to be able to use them creatively. For instance, my movie list on the right is actually another blog embedded into this page.
I also have a private page where I host all my geekier things. This is almost like a knowledgebase for myself. I am currently running Blosxom which I really love for its simplicity, but I think I am ready to move to a wiki or knowledgebase system.
– easy posting and updating of posts/topics
– good support for wiki-style knowledgebase stuff
– comments system or possible collaboration
– MSDE / SQL 2000 (preferably MSDE) back-end
This upgrade may not happen for a long time simply due to other things going on, and I plan on evaluating some solutions over time, so that I can get the most out of a wiki or blog system. I also now have spare systems to test things on, which will be ideal.