Just discovered SharpReader a pretty decent free RSS reader. My lunchtime trawl of the net may have just got a lot faster. The interface is functional, and the pop-ups notifications are very well done.
Bradbury (the people behind the excellent TopStyle) have produced an excellent reader called FeedDemon that from the screen shots looks very like Outlook 2003. At the moment I cannot justify the $30 when SharpReader does such a good job.