Dunno if this has been posted before but i've had a quick search, came across this plugin to outlook 2007 and 2003. It links with your hotmail account and you can send and recieve mail via outlook.
It syncs really well with its online counterpart and deletes and moves around mail so both locations (online and local) are synced.

Download details: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

And yes i've already got a gmail account but i know many people still stick with hotmail.