looks like there is a problem with nVidia 7xxx cards under WINE in Linux, since the characters are not animated and only their mouth/eyes/swords are
i just upgraded to a nVidia 8600gt and everything works ok
the performance is lower, the top goes like this: Windows XP/2003 > Windows Vista/2008 => Linux :) ( yes, looks like Vista/2008 performance is only slightly better than Linux, on the same setup)
Debian Sid 64bit
Kernel 2.6.23.14
KDE 3.5.8
nVidia Linux driver 169.09 64bit + OpenGL 32bit compat libs
WINE 0.9.54 64bit
the drawbacks:
-no Antialias selectable in game - this isn't a problem since it can barely play without AA in Windows too, did not try to force AA via the nVidia Linux control panel
-no EAX - can't really say if i'll miss it or not
-Shadows High removes the shadows but Shadows Medium works ok
-the health/toxicity bars seem to be missing, but moving the mouse over them works ok
-the control keys in the Control menu are not shown, but you can change them ok, you'll get notified if there are any conflicts as usual
-setting Gamma in-game menu does not do anything, setting it from the nVidia control panel works ok