No, the problem is not with OpenGL. OpenGL works very well when it is properly supported. The problem is with your graphics card driver. It has poor support for OpenGL. Are you using the default graphics driver from Microsoft? You should update your graphics driver with a more recent driver from the company that made your graphics card (nVidia). Go here:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
Your card product series is “GeForce 5 FX Series”
No, it cannot. Blender is a cross-platform open source program. Unfortunately, D3D only runs on MS Windows operating systems. If you would like to see cross-platform D3D support (making D3D a more viable option for use in Blender), then please contact Microsoft and request that they either port it to all Blender supported platforms or open the source so that others can do so.
Blender developers have actually taken the harder, less traditional route by offering an opportunity for choice. For example, I use Blender on Linux. By using OpenGL, the Blender developers have given me the freedom to make this choice. If Blender used D3D, I would be locked into developing on a MS Windows operating system, or I would be unable to develop with Blender at all.
No one is forcing you to buy a new computer. I used to develop Blender games with an Intel Pentium III 733 Mhz processor, 768 MB system RAM and an Intel i810 32 MB shared system memory integrated graphics chipset. On Windows 98 SE. And that was back when Blender GE was much slower than it is now.
