Help with Sims 2 Installation

I just recently got The Sims 2 from a local thrift store and I'd like to get some help with my problem(s).

Up until about a couple months ago all of my DirectX games were working. The next day for whatever reason though they stopped working.
The only thing I had done was upgraded some Intel video card driver. After this point the game would launch and a black screen would appear.
I uninstalled the driver (didn't rollback) so now it can't find any files...Now the game doesn't even launch. During this period I was playing GTA: SA
and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I recently bought The Sims 2, and reinstalled Windows XP without reformatting in order to get DirectX 8.1 back
because I had been having problems. None of the games work still, and yet all of them work except for Most Wanted on any other computer whether
I was at a friends' house, at school or on the alternate computer the Windows ME next to my XP. [*Sims 2 works; San Andreas doesn't (Not for XP),
and I haven't tried NFS on the ME.] The solution, unfortunately, isn't to play on the ME because it sucks really bad as far as graphics and the monitor
is slowly dying as everytime it or the pc is shut off it displays with a purple tint. I do remember tryign to add '-w' to the end and it still didn't work.

I also had a couple of other questions:

- Is there any way for me to register on EA's website since the serial code has been used on their website already?

- If I buy expansions do they act like a standalone game or do you play the original and all the new items show up?

Some possible items of usefulness:
When using DXDiag AGP Texture Acceleration is completely disabled and isn't able to be turned on. I don't remember if it ever was turned on however.

'My Computer' System Specs:
Intel Celeron CPU 2.40 GHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9250
1.50 GB RAM

Computer:
ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Display Adapters:
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PR/GV Graphics Controller [Disabled due to missing driver]
Radeon 9250
Radeon 9250 Secondary

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers:
Inel 82891DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB
Primeary/Secondary IDE Channel

Monitor:
Dell E773c

System Devices:
Intel 82801 PCI Bridge - 24E
Intel 82891DB LPC Interface Controller -24C0
Intel 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller - 24C3 Intel SMBus 2.0 Driver
Intel 82845/GL/GE/PE/GV/E Processor to I/O Controller - 2560

(Some things omitted due to not being important or so I figure.)


Error: Couldn't find Directx 9.0c Compatible Graphics Adapter....