The Apple site is chock full of information about how to get Macs to work with Microsoft networks.
The do work and they work closely with Microsoft resources including Exchange servers.
Here’s a link to a top-level article at the Apple site. From there you can follow several paths to specific topics about Macintosh Integration with Active Directory and network resources.
http://www.apple.com/itpro/articles/adintegration/
There is no reason to be afraid of Macintosh PCs . . . after version 9.x, that is.