[Wine] Understanding Wine on Ubuntu. Having problem i can't explain

[ccotton333]

I'm a newb to Wine as I have never tried to really run anything windows from a Linux box, so with that said here is my problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 running Ubuntu 8.10, 1.6GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and 64MB video card.  For some reason, whenever I try to play Diablo II I am able to play for random periods of time (anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours) then Wine seems to freeze up and lock up the PC completely.  I assumed it was something to do with my internet connection or graphics card or some other hardware issue.  I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and Wine on a older desktop 2.4GHz P4 CPU (not dual or quad core), 512 MB of RAM and a 32MB PCI video card (SIS305 chipset. it was the only spare card that I had). Once Ubuntu was installed I installed Diablo II just like on my laptop, however, strangely enough Direct 2Draw was chosen (i assume cause it's such a old card). Now the game looks insanely awesome!!! What gives here?  I mean is there something in the way wine handles the CPU on a desktop versus a laptop?  I mean i understand the general differences between the two, but it shouldn't make that big of a difference on Diablo II.  It's a old game that's CPU intensive.  Has anyone else had this same problem and is there a way to fix this?  I read somewhere about setting up profiles and stuff but I would have absolutely no understanding of that.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!