An old issue that is showing its ugly face again

Graphical stutters. Sorry in advance for the long post.I recently started having less tolerance for those graphical micro-stutters that happen in 2D cockpit view that affect outside textures when in turns on the ground and in the air.I contacted Microsoft support, via chat. They've been trying to be very helpful but nothing they suggested has worked, including running FS9 with Minimum everything. It is now being sent to their support escalation team that are getting in touch with me today sometime but I honestly am not holding my breath for a magic solution.I think I have narrowed it down to a culprit, maybe, but I wanted to hear from you guys who have experienced this.First, I have an old system:P4 2.2GHz1G RAM64 GF4 Ti4200SB LiveRest is standard stuff.I have formatted my HDD and a fresh install of XP with SP2, all the patches, and a clean install of FS9 with the 9.1 update. No add-ons what-so-ever.Tweaked XP to the max, and my system is running great. I am getting very high FPS, well above 40 in all cases.The thing of interest I noticed is that when I press the W key to get rid of the main instrument panel leaving only outside textures and the minimized basic instruments, those stutters are COMPLETELY GONE! In turns, climbs, weather etc...Nothing. Just perfect. As soon as I press the W key again to put back the normal 2D cockpit view and they all come back.One of the Microsoft support guys thinks that the gauges are somehow placing a huge burden on the graphics card causing the stutters. But I said that the minimized gauges are still 'gauges' so that doesn't completely answer that.So here I am trying to find a solution for this age old problem with FS9 and ofcourse my hardware but I would really like to hear from the tweakers and experienced users as to what might help.I appreciate all the input.