I've got an integrated Intel Q45/Q43 Express Chipset on this computer. But that could be the problem.
Though I'd expect the first few seconds of the boot to just use a generic text only mode.
I'll have to check this out.
In the meantime last night before going to bed I dug out of a closet my previous computer. This one is a 2GHz Athlon 64 with an old Nvidia video card. Maybe I could use this instead and just use it as a dedicated gaming machine...
Possibly would be simpler in the end.