I have had SOASE since the original release, and have had to patiently endure constant crashes and freezes ... until now. I checked the Nvidia site the other day, and found they have released version 175.16 for Vista. Once installing it, I went to a game on a large map, which previously would not go more than a minute or two before the Blue Screen of Death. Now it is playing as smooth as can be.   

One warning ... the "Find driver" thingy on the Nvidia site does not seem to be working properly. It brings me to the old driver (169.25) when I plug in my specs (Series 7). If you plug in "Series 9" instead, it gives you the new driver, which, it explains, "Supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, and 9 series GPUs." It is working fine on my 7300.

I hope this works as well for others who have been plagued with the problems.