I do think the problem is WinME, not paradox...
Have you tried running it on a better OS (even 98 is better)?
I really do think the problem is Win ME...
You can try hokking up a new HDD to the machine, reinstall only winME and minimal drivers, and try again with Pdox. I'm pretty sure it will function very well, exactly the same thing will happen in a DOS box under Win XP...