I had your same problem with WinXP and Win2k on a similar configuration:
Athlon XP 1600+
ECS Motherboard K7S5A
Creative GeForce 2 TI 200 with Detonator drivers 28.32
256MB
EIDE 20gigs HDD
On WinXP and Win2k I solved it this way:
open "Display Properties" from the Control Panel, click on SETTINGS, click on ADVANCED, then on TROUBLESHOOT, finally move the HARDWARE ACCELERATION bar 2 positions to the left from the FULL position.
In other words: lower the Hardware Acceleration of 2 positions.
I don't know if it works also on Win9x and WinMe.
I hope it will be useful.