If you have tried everything and no software combination of drivers seems to have any effect on getting your game to work better this may help.

All I did was take out 2GB of RAM, so I had 2GB left. So basically my motherboard doesn't run semi-old games well when the memory is maxed out.

These games used to crash on me all the time. Now they work great.

Leisure Suit Larry - Magna Cum Laude
Soul Reaver 2
Blood Omen 2
Legacy of Kain - Defiance
Gears of War

All of these games froze in exactly the same way (a stutter sound - then freeze!) Hope this helps.