I also became a fan in 2000, a friend of mine had a lot of her music and videos on his computer that his ex wife had acquired in China on her visit to see her family. A lot of things excited me back then about Ayu. I remember watching the CM's for poker face and A Song for xx and just thinking, she just so darn CUTE!
I had my friend burn me some of her music because at the time I couldn't afford to buy any of her goods. I pretty much wore that CD out. My ex got so tired of hearing Ayu everyday. xD I also remember seeing evolution for the first time, I thought Ayu was taking sort of a "diva/sexy" persona on at the time. I don't think it was until about 2003 or so when I really started looking up stuff on Ayu, doing graphics and so on. Mainly because I had my own computer at that time.
One of my best friends gave me her copy of A Song for xx because she was just a casual Ayu listener and she knew how much I loved her.
And whenever we went out to karaoke, I would make her sing Dearest for me. haha I'm sure she still hates me for it. She also tried Depend on you, but she always tried to get her voice pitch high like Ayu's but could never do it, so she would end up skipping the song.
I still love Ayu as much as I did when I first discovered her. She's been pretty much a constant in my life. All of my friends know that I love her.