MS Word to PDF SW, Which one, limited $'s

We are trying to get a State Board to discipline lawyers who swindled us, We were told to submit hard data, documents Motions etc. We did and now told "new rule, must be in PDF format, AKA another delay as seems a someone is not happy about this. Situation is around 125-150 MS Word 97 (rtf) :confusedpages, some in Motion (legal formats) need be submitted in PDF, ASAP as this new delay jeopardized Not later then "Legally", prescribed time period.

Money is not flowing here, we are on SS, use XP Home,Sp3 HP 560o printer that will not do PDF, as needed with some SW, why I do not know. We would like thoughts on best Word to PDF at lowest possible costs, Acrobat is prohibitive in costs, have read reviews on a few and leading lower costs one seems to have big issues with how it handle registration after installed seems big issue. Batch processing of multi files a big help

So what is best/lowest cost WORD to PDF SW, what does not work well and mus be accurate when it converts as suspect from amount of "well now you need this" will raise head. NOTE will be submitting 90% of files on CD's. Thanks in advance as not to much background with PDF conversions.