sims 2 disagreeing with video

when i try to run the sims 2, crazy stuff happens and my computer switches to software graphical rendering (ithink).
then sims pops up a dialog:

failed to find any directx 9.0c compatible graphics adapters in this system! please make sure you have a directx 9.0c compatible graphics adapter and have the latest drivers provided by the manufacturer. the application will now terminate.

probably because it just crashed my drivers ><
i'm running winxp sp2 with radeon 9550 video, and yes, i updated the drivers. two or three times.

WHAT HAPPEN ?

It does happen to be the case that i am using a downloaded copy. (My legal copy broke on the way back from the store, What're the chances?) It has 4 .img files of the 4 cds, each with a .cue (which i used), a .ccd, and a .sub.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by config file, the only file called "config" is in the support folder, but there are a bunch of folders called config.

Does that even apply with iso(or whatever)'d cds?