FSIM2K2 Lock-UP on Start

Hello everyone. Newbie here. I have a question and hope this is the right forum. I recently installed 2k2 on my new system. 512MB of Corsair XMS memory, Asus A7n8xdlx board and athlon XP 2500 cpu. Nvidia PCI MX 420 64 mb card...etc.Anyway, after last night's installation, I eagerly went to test it out with my new system, and when I clicked on the icon, I got the miniaturized black box on the screen and an hourglass - the system locked up on me. When I ctrl-alt-delete, the close box says "not responding." I have direct x 8.0 I believe - whatever the default direct x is when you install 2k2. Any suggestions on what I can try? It does start up in safe mode, so I have reason to believe I might have a software conflict...has anyone encountered this before?Thanks!