exchange2003

i REALLLYYY don't want to, but i have to change the domain name in my active directory environment. i read some of the documentation and it says that when renaming, if one of the domain controllers is also an exchange box, you should first move exchange off the domain controller. i have two windows server 2003 domain controllers. wouldn't it be MUCH easier to simply demote my exchange server so that it's not a domain controller any more? it's a small environment ( just about 60 users, down from 100 - bad economy ) and i'll just have one domain controller during the rename. once the rename is done, i'll promote my exchange box back to a domain controller.