Yes that should work. But you must be sure no transactions where made in the middle because they won't be replicated.

Due to a bug in SQL 2000, sometimes you can get an error if you add subscribers with out applying the snapshot. Don't remember it exactly, what it was something like couldn't insert duplicate key in #Snapshot! (or something like that).

To fix it, you can install a Microsoft Path, or create a publication, create a snapshot, and then manually empty all the *.bcp files.

This way if you restore your db and you have both databases equal, you create a publication, empty the bcp files, and apply the "empty" snapshot.