Discoverd that quality settings, other than AA & AF, on the vid card have no effect in the game. Based on my results, DUH. should have figured that a bit earlier. Results in Beta 15 tower no clipboard:
AMD XP 2500+ (Barton) @ 2.15 GHz (200 x 10.5)
Abit NF7-S
Corsair TwinX512 DDR400 ram
ATI 9600 Pro @ 484/688 (344x2) Cat 4.2 Rage3D Tweak
Card Settings AA & AF Off
Game Settings Default
1024 x 768, 32bit 64 FPS 5066 TC
1280 x 1024, 32 bit 60 FPS 5967 TC
1600 x 1200, 32 bit 57 FPS 7241 TC
Card Settings AA x4 AF off
Game settings max quality
1024 x 768, 32bit 22 FPS 24130 TC
1280 x 1024, 32 bit 21 FPS 24136 TC
1600 x 1200, 32 bit 21 FPS 25522 TC