My advice is to play the 10 bucks I play with my money all the time! Sometimes me and Benjaman Franklin take long walks on short boardwalks together.
About wanting to know when civ 3 comes out. Good news It's already out yes thats right It has been out or a while! You heard it hear first!
All kidding aside though you should buy the game, Amazon has it pretty cheap and the conquests for it are pretty cool, lots of replay value. Warning however this is the most sorriest excuse for the buggiest game I ever played.
Civilization 4 has a time frame from anywhere in late 2005 - early 2007.
Happy civing!