Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

Try to update the video drivers. [Firstly uninstall the old drivers, and install the new driver after that.] That might help, but I am unsure.

Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

The geforce system should run at least. Try downloading grahpics drivers from http://www.nvidia.com and make sure you got plenty of free space on drive c: for swap (500 Mb should be enough).

Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

Any idea what switches I should use? I tried -w -u -a without effect. I´ll try to upgrade my video drivers later this day.

Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

drivers:
"Latest drivers" - that would be the Win9x/Me version of Detonator 81.98. Use those, there should be no problem running Dom3.

command line:
use _insert_your_path_\dom3.exe -ifawsm --res 800 600 -ddddd
Try to run the demo and look for a log file and stderr.txt / stdout.txt in the dominions directory.

further help:
START => RUN => "dxdiag.exe" .. save the output as text file and either post it here as attachment or, if you don't want to disclose details 'bout your machine to the public, email it to me and I'll have a look what might wrong with your machines setup.

Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

Ok. I updated my drivers and the game starts. But it is so slow, that it is unplayable. What switches could I use to make it a little bit faster? I don´t care about the graphics. Or am I stuck with buying a new machine?

Re: Demo doesn´t start! What´s wrong??
 

Does it only run unbearable slow in battles, or overall?

From the in-game preferences, choose a lower resolution (800x600), low filter quality (does not make that much of a difference anyway), turn off "animated background" and "light effects". Set "tree quality" to lowest and GUI opactity to 100%.

In the Battle graphics detail menue, set quality to very low and remove (if its there) the tick from "draw grass".

If this all doesn't help, you might try the command line switch:
"-x --fastgrx Faster graphics (use 3 times for best performance (-xxx))"