(1) Programs hangs, (2) FX5600 messed all view

My computer is:
Athlon XP 1600+, 1.4GHz
DFI AZ30-EL
ProView 17' ???

OS: Windows 98 (is it worth to use WinXP Pro ?)

and I have two problems:
(1) There are prety large group of programs which when loaded hangs after they show start window (or flash - don't know how it is called).
These are Maple 7, Maple 8 Trial Version - I need that a lot,
also games: GTA..., WarCraft3...,
that was the reason I bought GeForce FX 5600 256MB, I thought these problems were caused by insufficient video capabilities, but I was wrong, I even got onother problem
(2) when I switch on the computer the parameters of monitor are always forgot, every time I have to correct the view on monitor, but for example on 800x600 resolution the view is so left forced that I cannot to set it write ( it is not enought to set the value to max right to see the whole view ).

Conclusion: I can't stand this situation and don't know what are the reasons, I have only some guesses, such as:
1) AMD is not as good as Intel, so programs will hang up;
2) old monitor, mainboard, video card drivers,
3) old Windowz

maybe You could help solving these problems, for example which guesses are true and maybe You could suggest more solutions (maybe not so drastic).

Thanks in advance