Alex, he said he bought a new computer, so that is impossibly the problem if he, as he said, installed all the newest drivers already.

But even so, the graphics card itself is definately not the problem either, this game can be played on graphics cards older than my granny ><
I would even so recommend you to buy a new GFX card. A 7300SE to that processor, that is just pure bullshit

Well, I can't really figure out where the problem lies, I can say I have the same problem on my 2nd computer, that comp also being decently fast. I have tried to; Reinstall q3, Reinstall windows and all drivers, change gfx card, even clocked it down to see if it was unstable, but nothing would solve the problem. (Not surprising, since I play MUCH heavier games on it on a regular basis) I would say my problem is because of some conflict between some parts in the comp, mayhaps the RAM is having a nuclear war with the other parts on the motherboard every time I play q3?

TIGER, do you have the same problem in other games, or is it only q3?

Then we might have the same weird problem. Anyone who could give us any hints as to what it might be?

Drivers are most important for your gfx card performance,so u need to find the best ones that suit YOUR card.I was helping some lemons allready with this issue and succeded,they had similar problems,fast processors,alot of ram,but not so good gfx card which were combined with crappy drivers,and also gave them frame drops like yours...and equal rule applies in all cases: "Newest drivers will in most cases make your card run much slower then it would with some older drivers".So I dunno how new your card is,and what are the 1st drivers that support your card,but I would start from there and move my way up to the newest.Also try clocking your card and install refresh lock program.There are also alternative drivers then official nvidias which give u little extra performance,omega and forceware,so check those out also.Disable any unnecessary winxp services and programs from startup list.

As for your resolution problem,try playing with r_mode cvar in quake.Try typing /seta r_mode "3" or 4 and see does it change.Combine it with refresh lock program [which must be running in the background] if u have refresh rate problems [cant get more then 60Hz]

Frame drops can also be caused by network congestion or network lags,so your problems can be caused by ISP or modem problems,or some program shit which is auto updating in the background making your quake lag.[This is just FYI if someone else who has frame drops will be reading this,and is 99% not the cause of your problem.]

Also check www.tweakxp.com on how to optimize windows.