Helpman,
Your HW config is similar to mine (P3 450, 256Mb RAM, 6+20Gb IDE HDD Geforce2 MX (elsa Gladiac))
I'm running DirectX8.0a, using NVidia Drivers 12.41, on Win98SE.
The SS runs OK, but I haven't left it running overnight to see if there are stability problems.
Anyway, I do not get the same ammount of problems as yours.. Try using the 12.41 drivers (or the 12.90)

Regards