New user question?

Greetings from Canada!! I am a new user to this site.....I lurked here a lot before I signed up!! haha....lots of .Good information here ....now my question.....I have Windows XP-new system...2 months old...I had Windows 98 for 2 years before I bought this new computer.....so I am a whole lot "green " yet about using computers.... I like to send on-line e-cards from Bluemountain and since I got this new system there are some cards---those requiring flash -that will not display for me ---all it -the card-shows is a blank page with a small square box up in the right hand corner.....now I'd like to know ....is there something missing on my computer that doesn't allow this ?? On my other system I never had any problem with the cards. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with me not downloading the SP1.....cause I heard so many bad things about that one I didn't download it! Do you think this may be my problem?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks....Judy