be prepared for that miracle

im not familiar anymore with the nvidia drivers but as far as i can see it, all the reviewers as well as firaxis themself as also people reporting everything is working great for them are probably using wether older drivers, or they tweaked something in their settings so that they don't use some particular "thing" of their driver which causes the error..since all people with OLD, not older but VERY OLD, drivers dont have any problems I suggest they newer drivers puts the graphics to a maximum or enabling some option on the chipsets which is the cause of all these troubles.
as for ATI, i tried everything, people reporting they used 5.04 drivers etc worked for them..it didnt for me..i had to go back all the way to the 4.10drivers which are made somewhat early 2004 and now everything works smoothly at 1280x1024 with all options maximized! and I can use Alt-tab non stop, MSN, ventrilo, Even coreldraw to make screenshots!

btw
P4 2,8GHz, 1024Ram, Ati Radeon 9800 pro 128 are my sys specs