If you havew a VIA chipset make shure to get the latest 4in1 drivers. Aslo good to run BIOS at latest version.
DirectX version should be at least dx9.0a.
The 8something version that comes with the CD is buggy.
As a first aid let Windows search for all files with extension "bdp" and "zx" inside your CFS3 folder and delete them.
They'll get recreated next time you run the game.
Next go to "c:\\documents and settings\your user name\application data\microsoft\combat flight simulator 3.0" and delete the entire folder.
Do the same with c:\\documents and settings\your user name\my files\combat flight simulator 3.0" if there already is such a folder.
Last run the cfs3config tool from the start menu and let it try to reconfigure drivers.
now start CFS3 and see if it's any better. Oh, and fingers crossed.

BTW, I have the same graphics card, no luck with the newest drivers either although it shows just in corrupted visuals.
I'm stuck with the 56.72 drivers.
