How can I have AW2K automatically download e-mail? Ideally I'd like to be able to trigger it from an external program, but some sort of automatic process would be fine

Well I personally have ICQ set to let me know if any mail comes into the accounts I use for auctions. but if you don't like ICQ or instant massangers, then look into a program called
Easy Notification 2.0 at http://www.weberik.com/
Hope this helps.
Jim