I can concur with you Chazar: my old computer worked very well with Dominions II (I had virtually the same configuration, although it was a Duron 700mhz rather than a 600 mhz Athlon; your CPU was likely a tad bit quicker, but not by much), and my newer computer hated Dominions II with a passion until the drivers were seriously updated. My graphic card was also an ATI Radeon, so the problem seems to be here.
Now with adequate drivers the game runs very well, but there was no real problem with my previous configuration either (even with other programmes running in the background). So I would be more willing to put the blame on drivers and a lack of optimisation in this field rather than on Illwinter.
