The move to was particularly important. As hardware evolved to support more than 4GB of RAM, the .NET Framework 2.0 x64 allowed managed applications to leverage expanded memory addresses, which was vital for early 64-bit versions of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003. Why an "Offline Installer"?
Microsoft has changed the rules for modern OSes. Strictly speaking, you install the standalone .NET 2.0 offline installer on Windows 10 or 11. The OS blocks it, stating that the framework is a component of the operating system. net framework 2.0 offline installer 64-bit