The problem is as you guessed, the video card.
Even with 256+mb AGP cards you get choppy video and also VERY high temps
I didn't even know that you could run this game on a 32meg card.
A suggestion would be either try to replace the existing card, or yeah...get a desktop
Unless you've got a ton of money for an alienware it's not of much use to play video games on a laptop:
They overheat
Battery life only about an hour with strain on your gpu/cpu
LCD Displays aren't very conducive to gaming
DISK SPACE PLZ?
BANDWITH PLZ?
802.11G (with a regular router) is like being on dialup.
d000d teh keyboard r small!!!
so r teh mouse!!!!!!
krick in the neck?
If it is absolutely necessary to continue on a laptop try contacting the manufacturer to see which cards (256+MB) are compatible (if any) with the ltop.
Try for ddr2/ddr3 on a gpu.