This is an inherent problem with sticking with w3d. As newer operating systems are released, who's going to keep up support for the development tools? Is anyone coding a plugin for a newer version of 3ds max? Everyone has given up, from what I understand.
Yeah try using software instead of opengl and see if that makes a difference...
If you're interested in making assets, you could use a newer version of 3ds.
Here's an alternate download link.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf0c9guh4ca42iw/apb-release.7z?dl=1
Server IP to direct connect to is 178.162.193.144:9016
I'm on my phone so I can't easily find direct connect instructions, maybe someone else can help with that?
I've been on Windows 7 Ultimate for 5+ years and other than the complete dropping of support, it would be quite hard to convince me to go to a different OS.