whatever you do, don't mess with services. i had a similar service type problem last week. went in there pokin around after i saw that thread on twaeking XP. well i must have done something strange because afterwards i was connected to the internet, could release/renew IP address, had correct gateway and DNS servers, but no application could connect to anything. played around with all the services for a long time trying to figure out which one i had turned off, decided to just format, reinstall since i hadn't done so in some time.
if you goto control panel > system > hardware tab > device manager.
in there you should see your card listed under "sound video and game controllers."
if it is listed with a yellow question mark under "Other devices" then you still have a driver issue.