I think I've found something

.... some of the contacts that weren't syncing had pictures associated with them... I removed the pic from Outlook (PC) and then the contacts started syncing!!! I then associated the pics back in the Axim and they are now syncing all right.
Another contact had no picture, just phones and addresses and was not syncing. I exported that contact to .vcf, deleted the contact, and then imported again... it fixed the problem...
I think there must be some contact field that PPCs and PCs don't share and cause them to misbehave.