[color:"orange"]I tried disabling DirectDraw and Direct 3D but then the game won't start.[/color]
Did you try just disabling Direct3D? If that forces the game to switch to DirectDraw (don't know if it will or not) it may fix the problem.
[color:"orange"]Also lowering the hardware acceleration did not help.[/color]
How about completely disabling it? Or does that just prevent the game from starting?
[color:"orange"]I think my graphic card is just too old (about 7 yrs) and that I should get a newer one.[/color]
Even a fairly cheap card (something a couple years old) could be an improvement (particularly with DirectX 9 support). If it comes to that, make sure you get something your computer can handle (power requirements, OS support, etc). I have a Radeon 9600 which benchmarks about 10 or 20% lower than expected, due to my relatively slow CPU (1.3GHz Duron, 512MB RAM, Win98SE). At the time it was a nice upgrade from my previous card, but anything newer (and more expensive) would most likely not give any practical performance boost.
