Windows 2000 Pro is NT based, it came out before XP. It was more stable than XP.
The hardware had to pass up the OS in stability features. 486 and under CPUs had a heat sink but no fan. Some CPUs didn't even have a heat sink. They ran hot being on for 24/7. Causing lockups and freezes.
I have Windows 95 in a virtual machine and it runs faster and without the crashes and freezes on my Intel i5 system.
Don't forget OS/2 2.0 it was stable and crash proof. It was a join IBM and Microsoft product. Microsoft's OS/2 became NT.