(FORTUNE Magazine) – It was the year the Internet bubble burst, the Nasdaq tumbled, and the economy slowed. But guess what? The revenues of America's 500 biggest corporations kept on growing in 2000. In FORTUNE's annual ranking, total revenues of the 500 grew by 13.5%, to $7.2 trillion, even greater growth than in the previous year.

While tech stocks got whacked and unhealthy enterprises were laid waste, some big tech companies on FORTUNE's list turned in surprisingly strong numbers. Intel (No. 41), Microsoft (No. 79), and Cisco (No. 107) all posted double-digit revenue growth in 2000, while Oracle (No. 184) grew profits by a stunning 388%. Those figures underscore that technology continued to be important, helping companies cut costs and increase productivity. "The promise of the productivity revolution is still alive," says Christine Callies, chief U.S. strategist at Merrill Lynch. "But now it is a new game."

Still, we aren't going to pretend that all was well and good in techland or the rest of corporate America last year. The general economic disarray and higher energy prices put the squeeze on overall profit growth, which plummeted from 28.7% in 1999 to 8.4%.

The service sector remained strong, but stressed-out shoppers passed along their wallet woes to manufacturers and retailers. Exhibit A was the car industry, where revenue growth slowed and profits shrank at both General Motors (No. 3) and Ford (No. 4). Profits at specialty retailers like Gap (No. 147) and Office Depot (No. 167) were down 22% and 81%, respectively, even as revenues grew. No. 2 Wal-Mart stayed on course with 16% revenue and 17% profit growth, but other general merchandisers, like Kmart (No. 36) and J.C. Penney (No. 43), sustained outright losses.

The telecommunications industry staggered through another volatile year of mergers and transformation. GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon Communications (No. 10). But federal regulators denied WorldCom's (No. 32) attempted acquisition of Sprint (No. 75). And, of course, AT&T (No. 9) and Lucent Technologies (No. 28) both faced great woes. As a result, AT&T announced a plan to divide itself into three separate businesses and a tracking stock, while Lucent ignominiously replaced its CEO, Richard McGinn, with his predecessor, Henry Schacht.

One sector largely immune to the economic gyrations: pharmaceuticals. The drug industry was more profitable than any other, with an 18.6% one-year return on revenues and a 17.7% return on assets. At Pfizer (No. 53) revenues rose 82.5%. "The merger [with Warner-Lambert] was part of it," says CEO Henry McKinnell, but Pfizer also gained market share by increasing sales of already patented drugs and introducing new ones. Blockbuster drugs like Merck's (No. 30) cholesterol-reducing Zocor, with its $5.28 billion in sales, created a steady stream of revenues.

Higher energy prices may have hurt profits in manufacturing, but they meant hallelujahs in oil-related industries, from pipelines to petroleum. Who knew better the enriching possibilities of oil than John D. Rockefeller Sr., the teetotaling, golf-obsessed monopolist who founded Standard Oil? Although he died in 1937, Rockefeller's legacy continues on this list. He owned big stakes in Union Pacific Railroad (No. 162) and GM. Government trustbusters split Standard Oil into 34 pieces, including Conoco (No. 44), Chevron (No. 20), and, of course, Exxon and Mobil. Now recombined, Exxon Mobil is the biggest, most profitable company in the country. Rockefeller, no doubt, would have been pleased.

--Noshua Watson

REPORTER ASSOCIATES Feliciano Garcia, Jessica Sung