OpenGL is a graphics library. There are many implementations, some of which will only work with particular video cards.
Every computer may use the Mesa implementation, which probably came installed with your Linux distribution. However, unless you have a buff computer (say >400 MHz), you may experience choppy control.
Better yet, you may be able to get a optimized implementation specifically for your video card. This will free the cpu of graphics jobs, and let you get by with a much less burly machine, (say >166 MHz). 3dfx, ATI, and Matrox users, try your luck installing the Direct Rendering Infrastructure. NVidia owners can try the closed-source drivers from their website.