Divorce proceedings were filed in the year 2000. The case was thrown out of court and has never been settled. Will the court use the original filing date or the present one to distribute assets?

By "thrown out of court", I assume you mean that the case was dismissed for some reason by the judge. If that is the situation, it is as though the case was never filed.

It depends on why the case was dismissed, but in general a new divorce action will have to be started and the court will probably use the new filing date for such things as distribution of assets and liabilities.

If course, depending on the facts involved, it might be possible to argue that assets should be distributed as though the parties separated at about when the original case was filed. Consult an attorney in your jurisdiction to see if that might be a viable argument.

I will agree with Scott, it all depends on the exact issues with the first case, If the case was dismissed, then that case ended. There is nothing about that filing that is valid.
So everything starts over with a new filing.

I get the impression you have refiled. Why was the original case thrown out?