I know that a lot of people dont care for them to much but the intro movies dont work for me... they blink fevorishly then turn black to display white text. The main game works great for me otherwise, well except that i cant dance :)
thanks SOH

Specs: Amd 64 3200, 512mb ddr 3200, ati 9550 256mb, WD 80gb HD, Windows XP Pro SP 2.

There is another forum where a few people have the same problem as you do.

As soon as the Firaxis people comment on that, I'll post something here as well. :)
[EDIT] First, you might want to check here and see if anything can be solved.
http://www.atarisupport.com/newfaq/sidmeierspirates.php?browser=1&pageDisplay=MAIN