After I installed Civ IV Gold it let me play perfectly fine the first time, however, the day after, I tried to play and it got stuck at the loading screen with the word loading in all the different languages. The same thing happens if I try to play either vanilla or warlords. Does anyone know what may be causing the problem?

have you edited any game files or are you using a CD crack? have you changed any system settings? installed any mods? if so try clearing out civ4 cashe before you play see if that helps, if your using a CD crack get rid, any system settings change back, whats your spec? have installed the latest patch for the game? v3.13 I think the latest is.. if you have not done anything try deleting my Games folder from my documents see if it helps(don't worry Civ will start a new one again)

Thanks! Erasing the My Games folder did the trick.