(EDIT ~> working fine in normal use now, with an older driver set.)
I have (almost) the same GPU in an old box here that I just pulled a Ti-500 out of, on which I had 32-Bit Full Color and resolutions up into the 19xx by 16xx range. It runs Win98, and the newest for that I found was 81.98. It's a BFG 6600 OC, 256 MB, and if once upon a time I had a BFG CD with it, I don't have that now.
It want(ed) to stay at a default of 16 "colors" and 640 by 480. I could change the Ti-500 settings on the fly, no problem. Not this weeny at first. It want(ed) to restart, and (would) come back with a black screen as soon as Windows was well started. All I could get at first was a Safe Mode placebo. I think that the Ti-500 was running a 77.xx driver.
The properties option did not include 32-Bit Color, and the resolution maxed out at 1024 by 768 (except that I can't get it to work yet).
I had an old version of DC on there, and had it do a cleanup. I did run into a complaint about Installshield needing an update on one attempt to use a CD (eVGA's) with this (BFG) graphic card. I don't recall if I'd remembered to disable my AVG that time or not.
With the latest version of Driver Clean, and a rollback to the 77.xx ForceWare I'd upgraded the GF3 Ti-500 to, all now looks fine in Windows, Sea Monkey, and Mozilla Thunderbird -- but it's the first time in many, many moons that a hardware swap gave me this much of a hassle!
Thanks for being a sounding board anyway, folks!