FX5200 slowdown in games

Question

Everything seems to be going OK then I get one game (Midnight Club 2) which causes no end of problems.  In the game, the graphics pulse (slow down, then speed up) and becomes unplayable.  Whenever smoke or flame effects turn up it goes down to a crawl.  Hey, I want to play a game not watch a series of screenshots.  At this rate my old banging 3Ti would have been better...
Specs:
MSI KT4V-L Mobo
2400+XP processor
MSI Geforce FX5200-TD
1x120GB 1x80GB 1x40GB Hard Drives
1xRelicsys 16x DVD ROM
SB Live Value
Windows XP Professional SP1
Hauppage WinTV Card
512MB DDR 2100 RAM
550W PSU
IRQs
0 System Timer
1 Keyboard
6 Standard floppy disk controller
8 Standard CMOS/Real time clock
9 Micorsoft ACPI Compliant System
12 PS/2 Compatible mouse
13 Numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE Channel
15 Secondary IDE Channel
16 MSI MS-Starforce GeForce FX 5200 (Nvidia GeForce FX 5200)
17 Hauppage WinTV 848/9 WDM Driver
18 Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
21 VIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
23 VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adaptor
Using the latest official MSI drivers 44.03 and latest mobo drivers, latest WinTV drivers, SBlive drivers.
I've tried using the MSI Clock utility to overclock and no improvement.  It's now running at the default settings.
Are there any settings in the BIOS which may be required to improve performance?  Is there any possibility that upping the AGP voltage may help?
And why does the Driver Cleaner link send me to a religious page.  I know that most people often need god's help with GFX cards but surely He's not giving tech support on them now?

Answer 1

As far as most games go it's fine.  It's just on MC2 with all the details turned down it seems to rollercoaster for no reason.  It can happen with the minimal amount of stuff on the screen.  I could understand if this happened on other games (with the details to the max) but it doesn't.
As for it being a "low end" card it means that I have been mis-represented by MSI themselves.  "Power and performance, the two elements every gamer craves, are the heart and soul of the GeForce FX" it says on the box.  If this is the case and it won't even RUN a game that came out a MONTH after the card then will MSI be refunding me my money??  I doubt that any MSI emplyee reads this so they probably won't answer.  If this is the case, it means that I have a lump of PCB with a few components on it that won't even be any use in two months.  Betcha the software supplier won't refund my money either.  Everybody shaking their heads and saying it's not their fault.  Hell hath no fury like a OneEye sold dodgy equipment.  Watch yer inbox MSI....