I myself have my share of bugs and problems in the game, especially given the fact that I myself use a Radeon 7500.
However, with the many work arounds and some patience; I've found that the game is wonderful. I've probably logged in 20 games already. The only thing I've had to compromise is the rendering of AI leaderheads during trades.
True fans of the series will never be the ones to complain. Most of the complaints are coming from Civ 3 Militaristic Purists, or new players who expected an Age of Empires Turn Based Strategy because they've never played the original Civilization 1 or any of it's ancestors... For the ones who actually have a right to complain? They're the ones who're suffering from constant crashes to the desktop due to a rare case of incompatibility with certain video cards, which Firaxis has assured to fix within the near future.
Speaking of Civilization 1... I remember how it froze my 486 running on DOS 6.1 on hundreds of occasions, it was even worse when I picked up Windows 3.1. Then again... I guess true fans will never reminisce on the hard times they had due to early release bugs.
I remember when Port Royale 1 & 2 came out... I remember when Colonization first came out... Imperialism 2... Shadowbane... Dark Sun... Anarchy Online... Lineage 1.... Superpower 1 & 2... All great games that I will wholeheartedly remember, not because of their horrific and buggy starts... but because of the depth of the game that they brought.
Civ 4 has taken the place of Civilization 2 as my favorite Civilization game ever made. It may even very well take the place of my favorite game ever.