Well really you are a noob, it just depends at what level. I'm a noob in comparison to rocket scientists for example, or at least that's what THEY think.
So here's a bit of info and I realize you figured it out, just some background stuff, like a fyi.
The vast majority of monitors 19" and lower, despite whatever price they may be, aren't large enough to support a higher resolution than 1280x1024. You do not get up into higher resolutions until you get into the 20" screens.
Almost all (if not all) Nvidia and ATI graphics cards the last 5 years have had a maximum resolution much higher than the average consumer is capable of using.
Windows considers almost all monitors as just plug and play, you want to see that infact. My Dell LCD is the same way. And then finally everything is detected automatically, max resolutions and etc. If you cannot go higher than 1280x1024 in the driver window, you just plain old can't.
EDIT: cut some stuff out that wasn't needed.