I too am using the 169.04 drivers on 32 bit Vista.
I just started playing Gears of War without too many problems. People are having heaps of issues with the game, and apparently Epic Games isn't recommending the 169.04 forceware, but I seem to be going pretty smoothly.
My game kept crashing about 30 seconds upon startup in the menu of the game. Strangely, all I had to do was start the game by right clicking on the Startup Icon for the game and clicks "run as administrator" even though I am logged on as administrator... Works like a charm now.