Civ3 Complete and Civ3 Gold compatibility?

So recently I've been listening to my friend talk about Civ3 non-stop. As such, I decided to go out and buy Civ3 Complete. We wanted to play a PBEM game, but she has Civ3 Gold (which came with Play the World) and when she tries to open the save game, it won't do it. Something about a corrupt file.

Are the two compatible? Is there a patch that she needs to use to bring herself up to code, so to speak? Would it make a difference if she started the game instead of me?

Thanks in advance.

IIRC, Gold does not include Conquests while Complete does. So indeed she could start a PBEM in PTW (common game for both of you) and send the save to you. You should be able to open it and play it.
Of course you would not have all the new juicy items from Conquests except if she buys the Conquests add-on.

Civ3 complete by default opens civ 3 conquests. go into your civ3 complete folder and go into the ptw folder and click on play the world