Best graphics -- how? nvidia MX400, AMD chip

[GKChesterton]

My latest install of Linux is promising. How can I optimize graphics? Goal is enhancing experience with games like Armagetron, Extreme Tux Racer.

Also goal is to not cause display to fail. I have seen the games above run faster and prettier. But I have also had forced re-installs when the display won't boot into visibility.

Hardware non-mysteries:
* AMD Athelon/Athlon 1200 MHz
* 1.5 Gig RAM
* Nvidia MX400

Hardware mysteries:
* Is the nvidia card 16bit or 32bit?
* Is the CPU 32MB or 64MB ?
* Do I even know how to write that stuff?
* At least I know for sure I'm on a x86!

My install of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron seems to be great.

glxgears produces:
image of moving spinning gears, animated

lspci -v produces:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: 
nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev b2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	
Flags: 
bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at dd000000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

IN USE (according to Synaptic Pkg Mgr):
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-16-generic
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22-14-generic
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-16-generic

NOT in USE
envy
anything starting with nvidia-glx

[purple]If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research [blue]database development[/blue], would it? [tab]-- Albert Einstein[/purple]​