The problem is most probably your Radeon card.. SFC 3 works best with Geforce as SFC 3 was built on the Geforce series cards... come to think of it.. most games work best with Geforce cards... the issue usually occurs when the video drivers are poorly written and / or released untested on a wide variety of games (even if Microsoft WHQL's the driver) which is the main problem of ATI cards (not tested on a large variety of games for stability before release.)
but back on topic.... for ATI Radeon series
here is a check list for you to try...
First and foremost, make sure you are using SFC 3 Beta 1.01 build 500 patch and DirectX 9.0b, and Windows is completely up to date from the Windows update Web Site..
the Beta patch can be found on my web site at
http://www.nightsoftware.com/effhq/sfc32.htmlmake sure you read the entire descriptions of the downloads before getting any..
now check your Game settings for use with the ATI card by this list.. do 1 at a time until the game works correctly...
1.) Find your SFC3.exe file, right click on it, select properties, click on compatibility tab, make sure everything is unchecked.. click OK
2.) Lower your screen resolution to 16 bit color
3.) Revert back to the 3.6 catalist driver, if that don't work, try the 2.6 driver.. then finally the 2.3 driver
4.) lower screen resolution to a setting below your current resolution (pixel setting like 1280x1024 or 800x600)
5.) use the SFC3Setup.exe to set game screen resolution to match your screen setting...
if none of these correct the problem, then recheck your system specs to what is listed on the game box. It is best to use a system that exceeds the minimum requirements as it will allieviate some of the problems with a game...
hope that this information helps...