colour display problems

I recently had my p.c reformatted, windows 98 2nd ed
installed and office 2000. I have a wonderful choice of 2
colours or 16 colours. I have checked into the settings
window which does not have the 256 colour choice. I am
not too knowledgeable about the tech side of p.c.s and
would appreciate any advide on getting correct colours as
I am getting sick of looking at rows of dots.
This problem is making it very hard to view anything on
the net. I am not even sure on how to get back to this
discussion group so please email me at
.

Thank you
Emerald