I've had problems like this with my ATI/Radeon 9000 Pro
Even though it came with drivers to use for Windows 98, it did not seem to support it properly.
I moved on to XP and it worked like a dream. The nightmares just came after getting used to XP.
Maybe the resolution is too high to work with, try setting the resolution to 640x320 or 800x600 in safemode and see if that helps.
I don't think I can be of anymore use.