Win98se Nvidia driver hangs

I have a Gateway Win98se machine, PIII 450 w/256MB,that successfully POSTs, but hangs before the video driver loads. I need to reboot in safe mode- 16 color/640×480- restart to the warning that
“the adapter settings are not supported”, change to 640×480 256 color, reboot and then switch to 800×600 16 bit. This happens with the OEM driver and the update (both from Gateway)and with the updated driver from Nvidia’s website. Any suggestions, aside from buying a new video card?