You definitely shouldn't give up, rhodius :-)
My ignorance is greater than yours, but eventually I managed to get Xorg 7.6 working perfectly on a Socket 939 mobo with ATI IGP, and considering the crustiness of the hardware (and how it would perform with XP, let alone Vista or 7), it goes like the clappers.
I'm going to have another crack at my HP T5720 thin client tomorrow, adapting the xorg.conf I used for the 939 mobo. If it works, I should have my new daily-use PC, trundling along on a huge 25 watts flat out in complete silence.
Good luck, Jon.