<p>Pretty much what the title says really.</p>

<p>We have some code that is .NET 1.1 based and no real desire to up-convert it.  However, we are looking to add developers to the team and they will need copies of Visual Studio.</p>

<p>My understanding is that they will need VS 2003 - as this is the only IDE that supports .NET 1.1 but I am wondering if we are still able to purchase it!</p>

You can build 1.1 projects in Visual Studio 2005:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/BuildingNET11ProjectsUsingVisualStudio2005.aspx
The MSBuild Everett Environment (MSBEE) has been announced, and soon this will be a (reasonably) supported scenario and we'll all be able to build both 1.1 and 2.0 versions of .NET code on Visual Studio 2005.
Also read this post about this issue:
http://blogs.msdn.com/clichten/archive/2005/11/08/490541.aspx
And also:
MSBuild Extras
– Toolkit for .NET 1.1 “MSBee” is an addition to MSBuild that allows developers to build managed applications using Visual Studio 2005 projects that target .NET 1.1.