I just ran into the same problem with an ATI X300 card on Slackware and have it resolved.
Go as far as seeing the splash screen of a GoogleEarth install.
Go to ATI's website and download the older ATI driver for linux, I used
ati-driver-installer-8.27.10-x86.run
run it, using a command like:
sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.27.10-x86.run --extract ati
this will create an ati directory with all the files from the driver package.
You might want to back-up your GE files before doing the following.
Copy one file from the driver package over the top of one of the GE drivers:
cp ati/arch/x86/usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /opt/google-earth/libGLU.so.1
Now run GE - should work normally... now to install the missing fonts.