Alright, I finally had time to start digging through the drivers (the Porsche is back together, new suspension, new shoes, etc., woohoo!). Seems that the old NVidia TNT2 driver that ships with Suse is known bad. Apparently, licensing restrictions prevent them from shipping the correct driver with the box that you buy at the store. If you bring up the "online update," it's one of the obvious items on the list, and it works like a charm.
hehehe, once I got my video card working correctly, I ended up playing Tux Racer for like an hour. That game is frighteningly addictive! You're torn between driving the right line, deciding which herring are good and which are "red," trying to figure out how to go faster ... Aargh!
Anyhow, now I just need to persuade my wireless network to work correctly in Suse. And Wine.
Thanks for the help, all, I am so loving not running Windows!
Dan