i had this problem when i was home and relized that my internet was slow by trying to watch a moive it took forever to load so maybe your internet is goin slow.
169.21 is still the latest from nvidia for XP, there are some 174.xx beta floating around that are getting mixed reviews (Guru3D) if you want to try them, XP is good Vista not so hot iirc.
Nope. It's a setting associated to how the video plays in sync with the monitor settings.
You can disable it in the game settings, or go into the Nvidia Control Panel, click on Manage 3D Settings, and in the following drop down menus on the right, disable it for all games or only the games you select.