Not necessarily. I've run 2k and XP on a KT133 board, no problems. From the info given, I can't rightly say what it could be without some system specs.

Windows should install on any KT133, 266 or 333 with out problems. What BIOS settings are you using? What are your specs? Try pulling all the cards except video and run the install.

Ive had that error only once before, on a friends via system, was caused by the power supply not being enough for the system.

While Via is know to have problems, it does make me a bit annoyed when people automatically blame them first without considering other things first.

Well, at least I'm not blaming it before considering other things. I've had more than my share of problems with motherboards using VIA's KT133 chip, and when I was told it might cause it, it came to me as no big surprise. Well anyway, even if this is not the cause of the error, something surely is. And I don't know about the power supply thing, how come Win2k would take any more toll on it than Win98 or Linux? Both 98 and Linux work on the system (well if you can ever say that Win98 'works', that's why I'm changing to Win2k).
 
Well anyhow, here are my system specs:
 
AMD Thunderbird 750MHz
MSI K7T Pro2 motherboard
ASUS V7100 Pro GeForce2 MX400 3D-card
Creative SoundBlaster PCI128
3Com 3C900 Vortex/Boomerang Combo LAN card
Maxtor 30GB HD
Seagate 20GB HD
Plextor PlexWriter 40x24x10
Samsung DVD drive
512MB SDRAM
 
BIOS settings are only slightly changed from the default. As CyberGenX said I might to have to try to pull out the network card and soundcard etc 'unnecessary' stuff and see if that helps.

Consult this list to see what Hardware is compatible with W2k: http://www.activewin.com/win2000/win2000hcl.txt
 
Though it is a pain, clean intall W2k. I would also pay attention to how your drives are configured in Bios: Master/slave Primary/secondary. If you are installing from a CD using your Plextor, it probably requires DMA support. W2K and XP have a bad habit of initially installing CD's with PIO, which the Plextor will choke on. Have no idea about the 3Com or the Samsung DVD, but if they are not in the list above, disconnect them on your initial install and try to add them with their own drivers afterwards. W2k will install its generic Nvidia drivers, so you may wish to install the drivers and support software for the Asus after W2k is up and running smoothly.

Thats not a VIA issue. THats a hardware issue

Try taking out everything but the bare essentials and then reinstall, see if it works then

Both clean install and installing on top of Win98 give the same result: halt on the hardware check when booting from HD the first time.
I'll try ripping more stuff off to try to get it to work, removing only network card and sound card didn't help, so I suppose at least those aren't the problem.

Some who use the VIA chipset advise that you disable ACPI in the BIOS which "forces" Windows to use the IRQ's set by the Bios and then in the middle of installation they choose Standard PC. For some this works better with the 4in1 drivers. For others the regular Windows install using ACPI to handle the devices works fine. Working through the install methodically as you are doing is an excellent (but sometimes frustrating) way to track down the problem. This is just an option that you can keep in the back of your mind.

Win2k and XP are more sensetive to hardware issues than 9x.

Thanks Sampson, I'll try that. I unplugged all unnecessary stuff: floppy drive, DVD drive, network card, sound card, second HD... no luck. So I'm running out of stuff to try, all I can do now is tweak in the BIOS.

Reset the bios to default values. THen try. After that you can tweak it again.

Well, I'm writing this from my own comp, from Win2k, so as you can probably gather from that it now works. Tweaking the BIOS seemed to do the trick. Thanks for your help!

Congratulations!!! I would do a couple of more things. Keep some word processing document running in the background, and cut and paste all of the things you did, the content of the documents you referenced on the web, and the status of your Bios settings. I have made so many bonehead mistakes that I have a notebook the size of a telephone directory. Web pages change and an article you read may not be available anymore and yet you might remember that there was something that fixed an issue if only you could find it again.
 
The other thing is backup your registry. W2k does have a backup for a recent boot but it does not work like XP's that successively backs up.
You may never use it, but it is there nonetheless.