Gaming in C++

Here's the deal, /prog/. Over the winter break, I have decided I want to practice and expand my skills, and as such, design a small applet type game using C++. Now, i am fluent in C++, and MFC, but MFC wouldn't exactly be ideal for this. I fully intend for the game to be 2D Sprite based.

What should I look into, what should I use, and how should I go about things? I've heard openGL would work well, is there anything else I ought to remain cognizant of?

>>25,28
(Off topic)
Where the fuck did all this talk about a fucking wrapper come from? SDL and Allegro?

>>25
(On topic)
If you want to exercize your coding skills it'd probibly be better if you stuck with either straight up machine code or assembly (whatever floats your boat, you'll probably need to write an assembler anyway) and design your own processor architecture for it instead of using someone elses.