Isn't this what it's ment to do?
Mads Villesen created
this plugin to control Media Center Edition with your PC Zapper remote.
If you run Media Edition, be sure to try this one out!
It's designed for the 'sleek' remote, but of course it can be adapted to do more with the basic remote (that one has more buttons like a rec button and channel up and down buttons) so get creative and add some lines to the script!