Here are my system specs,

Athlon XP 2100
768 sdram pc133
60 gb hd
nvdia geforce fx 5200
onboard sound cmedia AC97

All drivers have been updated, all third party programs are shut down.
I am currently running directx 9. I was atcually running the game with my other video card which is older (radeon 7200) for a little while, but after a multiplayer game went out of synch. I began to have the same problem with that card. So I reinstalled but that did no good. I know that sounds real strange. Thats why I'm baffled. Lastly I could run the original Civ 3 and PTW without any problems, but I gave those cds to my brother. When conquests came out I just went and bought it as well as civ 3 gold. So anyone with any ideas please help!!

Your mobo wouldn't happen to have a VIA KT133A chipset, now wouldn't it?

You know, my system is very similar to yours, exept my GFX card is a GF5600, and I have been suffering from constant crashes during gameplay. I think it's because of the chipset.

Apparently the Via K133A Chipset with the VT82C686B southbridge chip has a bug that in specific circunstances can cause data corruption. Normally that seems tho affect sound and heavy HD workload more often since it's when the system needs a constant flow of data.

I did discover that disabeling the background music seems to solvethe crashes/hangs in CIV3. Have you tried doing that?