This article explains in a general sense the basic troubleshooting of Ubuntu 7.10's compiz 3d Desktop. This tutorial of sorts helps troubleshoot Nvidia cards and Ati cards. I would like to clarify the section "Possible problems for ATI users" this should be abit more clearer on new installs:

0)Install Gusty's Compiz updates ( in Add/Remove App's )
1)Install restricted ati driver and enable it. (same as
above)
2)install CompizConfig Settings Manager
2)In terminal:
sudo dpkg install xserver or sudo apt-get install xserver
3)Reboot
4)Enable Desktop effects and configure.