Anyone *PLEASE* help me with this?!

I guess it's not a common problem, but if anyone of the Linux-Gurus out here
could *ACTIVELY* help me dig up a solution for this..?? I bet you at least have
*some* idea where to begin searching and how to approach this; 'cause I - being
quite a Noob when it comes to Linux administration - simply don't. Tried to
google for it but didn't get a clue (at least none that I could understand).

So here's the issue:

I've set aside a brand-new AMD QuadCore with Debian Linux and MegaPOV for
rendering purposes; everything seemed to be fine, and I even managed somehow to
configure Gnome and set up Xming and Samba so I can access the box from my
everyday-work Windows machine quite comfortably.

Now I notice that the Linux system timer is running WAY TOO FAST, about twice
the regular speed. I set the clock at ~19:45; at 20:20 it showed 20:58, and at
20:43 it is showing 21:44 presently.

Maybe related to this is an effect I see in "top", which reports MegaPOV tasks
as taking up quite precisely 50% of cpu time each (Gnome's System Monitor
correctly reports them as using 25% though, corresponding to one core).

I gather that there's a problem on AMD machines with *some* way Linux keeps
tracking time ("TSC"), while there's another way that should work (two actually,
"PMtimer" and "HPET").

I don't get the slightest clue, however, what I should do in order to fix this
in Debian Linux (or any other Linux, for that matter) to make my system keep the
correct time.

I just want to run MegaPOV on that computer (and maybe POV 3.6 and later 3.7). I
also don't actually care what Linux distribution I'm running as long as it
works, so recommendations for a (freely downloadable) distribution that
will run "out of the box" on my system would be welcome, too.

I'm running an AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3 GHz on a Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H mainboard
with 4GB of RAM.

*ANY* help appreciated, provided it is Linix-Noob-compatible. I think I need
someone to navigate me through whatever solution there may be, step by step.

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