SEV - Menu performance / antialiasing

[TurinTurambar]

I suppose this is as good a thread as any to post my problem.
It was advised on the IRC last night that if my computer could run Starfury, it should run SE:V just fine; that is not the case at all apparently. Once the game is open, my entire system is taxed. Not only does the game operate sluggishly (more on that in a minute) but everything slows down. I was trying to chat at the same time, and sometimes had to wait 10 or 15 seconds for what I typed in the send-line to even show up. The mouse ghosted. The windows start menu opened only after a long delay. Et cetera ad nauseum.
Now the game itself: Opening the game is ok. Going thru all the setup and empire options and all that is all fine. However, once the game actually starts playing.... <Insert sound of Millennium Falcon hyper-drive failure here> The mouse in-game behaves like it's stuck in molasses. I move it, it disappears, it reappears and slides to a halt somewhere in the direction I moved it.

This system is no slouch (though I'll admit the vid-card is a bit lacking) and as I stated before, it plays Starfury very well, even the 3d-rendered battles. I'm looking for ways to fix this.

• I can't find an antialiasing setting in the advanced setup of my card.
• Can I turn off the rotation of the planets in the main screen or something?
• Should I spend $200 on a new card to play this buggy-*** game?

System:
XP Pro sp2
2.4ghz Intel P4
1.5GB RAM
Matrox Millennium G550 with latest drivers and DirectX 9.0