MadMax!
I downloaded and installed Dx8 and had no problems at all.  I'm running win98SE also.  as a matter of fact, I have a geforce2 gts Pro card that flickered occaisionally when I was playing AH.  Dx8 seems to have solved that problem.
remember though, it worked for me.....I'm using as follows:
AMD athlon 950
256meg pc100 ram
Hercules Prophet Pro GeForce2GTS 64meg vid 
Diamond Monster MX300 soundcard (aureal 3d)
Asus K7M ( very early athlon MB) flashed bios
and a cable modem.  
