I've compiled today aMule on my Notebook with Win2k just for fun.
I don't had the libpng, but everything else compiled as usual. [MSYS+MinGW, I followed the steps of the tutorial]
aMule started as usual (I'm surfing over Proxy, forwared only Port 21 and 80) and I could connect to a Server and KAD [firewalled + LowID of course].
After being lucky about how well you did everything, I closed aMule. It showed a message like 'could not terminate thread Error 6 the handle is not vaild (ist ungueltig, war auf Deutsch)'. I used amule cvs 20050731 and the software recommended in the HowTo.
amulegui connected to the running aMule and ran well even if some KAD-output is erroneous (always showed the kad status in new line instead of refreshing after a sec.) or missing. (Kad status in Main-Windows, Kadusers+files)
but Anyways, you did great work with the winMule! I'll use aMule on Linux, but many winusers will get the possibility to use aMule working fine.
