I find this very strange. One of the best parts of using Windows XP is ClearType. If you have a laptop and XP, not using ClearType is a crime. It is on the Effects dialog on the Appearance tab in the Display Properties. The sans-serif fonts in the FR page headers look super-clean with ClearType on.
What about kerning (letter spacing), tracking, ligatures in PowerPoint, fontography and cursor selection of text in Word? I've used the same programs for thousands of hours on both platforms. The Mac is faster, cleaner and runs better. And any mac or adobe text or graphic handling is superior on either platform.
This would seem odd with text since TrueType is a Mac/Microsoft product. Still the more Mac and the less MS, the better it looks and the better it operates.
Adobe Postscript fonts are more hassle, but if you want top quality, they are still the standard.