Why cant I open a Word doc as an attachment? Could it be an old version of Word? How do I get round it?

I have received an email but cant download the attached doent. Wondering if it could be an old version of Word.... is there a way round this? It gives me the dialogue box as usual to say its downloading & checking for viruses and says 'done' in the status bar of the web page but nothing to see! mmmm...... any decent ideas welcome.