What Graphics Card

I am completely new to FS, just installed FS 2004 and it looks very
promising indeed. I went solo after only one hour and crashed on landing,
but it was a start!
I thought my PC should be fast enough 1.9G chip with 1000 RAM.
But my Matrox Millennium 550 graphics card (2 years old) does not seem to be
good enough at any resolution, there is obviously an incompatibility (It's
not WHQL certified - whatever that means). Very poor modelling of the
landscape. I am about to download from Matrox the latest driver software.
Is that going to make the vital difference or should I consider getting
another card altogether? In which case how about the NVIDIA G FORCE or 5950?
Both these have been suggested to me as possibilities.

Also, am I being optimistic in hoping to eventually run FS with max
modelling at my current settings which are 24 bit at 1024X768?

Also (sorry to go on, but I have so many questions) is there a decent
handbook on FS2004?

Biggles