I realize this is a really old post, and I hope everyone has moved on to more current flavors of SQL Server, but I just started a new gig, and I'm supporting SQLServer 2000. I found another work around to this issue. The KB article mentioned above is not clear on how to remove the replicating of non-clustered indexes. The way I was able to do this and get around the statistics error was to check the "Include declared referential integrity" box in the snapshot tab for Article Properties. Once I check this box, I unchecked Clustered and Nonclustered indexes boxes. Reran the snap and viola I didn't get the dreaded

"There are already statistics on table 'table name' named 'stats name'.

(Source: server name (Data source); Error number: 1927)

error.

Hope this helps some other poor soul out there supporting SQL Server 2000 Transactional Replication to later versions of SQL Server.

fjc