GTA3 doesnt start
 

Heres the story:

gta3.exe ran fine until this morning when i opened the exe file. everything started up like normal, so i went to the display setting changed it to my setting 1024x768x32 and pressed enter. all of a sudden the game closes and it says it cant support it....then a fatal exception error pops up (and yes the 1024x768x32 setting had worked perfectly b4) so i go to restart gta3.exe and it would pause for a second and then it would stop....nothing would come up it was as if i didnt even click the .exe, so i rebooted my computer retransferred all the files and it still doesnt work...any suggestions? could have anything to do with the registry? or anything? please help me

System specs:

AMD athlon 1.4 GHz
geforce2 pro 64 mb ddr
win 98 se

Re-install and patch up to 1.1 - this removes Safedisk protection.

After it crashed that first time i have been unable to even start it up...so i reinstalled everything, I put in the installation disc and i put in the play disc i click on the exe....the blue rockstar sign comes up but nothing happens...so i d/l the latest patch and apply it...the blue rockstar doesnt come up anymore but the game doesnt even start...plz can some1 help me...does gta do anything to my system such as making hidden files that once it crashes, for some reason, it wont start up again?