Replication Error: SQL Server does not exist or access denied. (Source: MSSQLServer, Error number: 17)

Here is my setup. 3 sql servers.
Publisher: sql 2000
Distributor: sql 2000
Subscriber: sql 2005

Publisher can push the data to the distributor. A snapshot is generated successfully. However when replication starts from distributor to subscriber it fails givng the following message:

SQL Server does not exist or access denied. (Source: MSSQLServer, Error number: 17)

Publisher and distributor are on the same domain. Subscriber is on a different domain. Using sql logins for all the servers.

Please let me know if you need any further info.

Thank you.