upgrading panther

[Renita Williams]

I currently am running 10.2.6 on a Dual 1 GHz G4 with 1.75GB of memory. 
  I have never had any problems with it.  The only force reboots I ever 
have to do are with Word working on large files--and that is very 
rarely.  I have been reading the list on and off for suggestions on 
upgrading to Panther.  I have downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and intend 
to make a bootable copy of everything on my hard drive to another hard 
drive as a backup.

I have a few questions:
1. Should I update to 10.2.8 first?
2. Should I do an Upgrade install or Archive and Install based on the 
fact that I currently have no problems?

Thanks for any suggestions or help.