Which Windows OS are you running, I'm assuming XP but wanted to make sure.
Also, if you click on the START button and then select RUN and at the Open line type in dxdiag and click OK, does this bring up the DirectX Diagnostic Tool ???
If so, what version does it show ???
Then the final thing is to look at Display Tab and see what graphics chipset you have, if it's an onboard/igp type, you are out of luck until you get a hardware graphics card installed into you machine.