Greetings everyone

I am using dosbox 0.65 to run wing commander III under win XP, but while the game runs quite well, I am having serious problems with the joystick.
Basically, when the game's install routine asks me to calibrate it, I am unable to do so as the x and y axis values the program registers seem to vary almost randomly (and they reach values of around 20.000 instead of the joy's hardware peak of 64). Even if I am very lucky and manage somehow to get the right calibration values, those do not stay so for long, and as a result while in the game I must fight as much to keep a straight line as to engage the enemy, not to mention the fact that since the joy can also be used to navigate the game's interface while not on a mission, it is a constant duel to move the mouse cursor where I want to instead of where it goes to on its own. Also the in-game recalibration routine seems not to work (both if I use the ALT+J combination or click on the "recalibrate" button nothing happens), so I need to run the install again to be able to recalibrate the joy.
I have a microsoft sidewinder pro connected to my pc (a Sempron 2600+ with 1gb of RAM) via the MIDI/game port on my SB audigy card and on the dosbox I am emulating it as a 2-axis joy. I tried to set it up as a 4-axis or a thrustmaster as well, without any change.