Hi all! Hi Cass! 
Could this be a bug in the 43.35 drivers:
if I create a lot of vertex buffer objects some (of the later created ones) do not show up during rendering; they are just ignored.
I do check the OpenGL error status but do not get an error! But this could be an “Out of memory” situation for the graphic card’s memory.
If I switch back to standard VAs everything works as expected.
Didn’t check the 43.51 driver yet.
Hampel
I also had a problem with these drivers. On my system (2000XP+, GFTi4200) they work fine but on my second system (P3-500, GF256), it doesn’t work when I provide normals as GL_SHORT and I use VBO, thought it works if I provide them as GL_FLOAT or use standard VA. I’m downloading the 43.51 beta drivers as I type this. Hope it will work better…
Please try the 43.51 drivers. There were some bugs fixed in that release. If that doesn’t solve the problem, please let me know. (Please post here and email me.)
Thanks -
Cass
Unfortunately, the 43.51 drivers don’t fix the problem. I had a tiny speed up on the GF4 (about 3% but since on this system the game seems mostly fill rate limited it isn’t surprising).
On the GF1 it still crashes (even faster than before).
43.51: does not fix my problem
And on my system 43.51 crashes when I attempt to use VBO 
I am shown an ugly window with abnormal program termination.
I’ve done a little bit more testing with the 43.51 driver:
GF4 TI4200, P4 1.8 GHz: runs like it should
GF2 MX, AMD 1.2 GHz: crashes with the first usage of ARBvbo 