On my machine:
Pentium M 1.6GHz
512MB RAM
ATI X300 128MB supports 256MB
1.52 and Harkfix run fairly similarly for the first hundred or so turns, at least on standard maps.
On large or huge maps, Harkfix runs faster and after the first hundred turns, Harkfix beats down 1.52 on standard as well.
The oddest thing to me, is that I have never once had any kind of bug...with 1.00, 1.09, or anything...all I had was immense late-game slowdown. I would have thought that since the software was exactly the same for everyone, that any bugs being caused would either be caused on everyone's computer, or it is their hardware's fault.
Now, with 1.09+Harkfix, I did have some gunships disappear every once in a while, but that seemed to be fixed when I upped the graphics to top levels again.
I went ahead and deleted Harkfix, replaced my original zlib.dll(or whatever it is called), and installed 1.52 because I was really interested in the combat % viewer.
Thus far, I've had more errors and bugs than I've had with 1.00, 1.09, and 1.09+Harkfix combined. It runs faster than 1.09 without harkfix, but doesn't beat Harkfix in speed, more does it save memory, Alt-Tabbing is ridiculously slow again(it was immediate with Harkfix, full screen and windowed)
I also can no longer watch any wonder videos-they skip and freeze every second or two...not even Stonehenge, while Harkfix let me see every video back to Manhatten Project and United Nations.
Finally, and to me, the last straw for version 1.52- I was playing a standard size game, 7 civs, normal game speed, continents map. In 1530AD, I clicked on England to discuss trading maps, and I experienced my first CTD since Windows 95. My computer then froze for around 25 seconds, popped up a message saying I had run out of virtual memory(which I believe was set at 1.5GB, after my vid mem and system RAM), I clicked ok on that, I figured I could just reopen the game and start playing again once XP cleared my memory. Instead, I get a second error message that said that Civilization4.exe had made an 'unusual' call to memory and that the program would have to shut down. I found that odd, since my task manager said Civ4 was already shut down. I tried moving my mouse, found it frozen again...and then it happened....the blue screen of death
....and a little countdown at the bottom saying something about a physical memory dump.
I am only a freshman programming student at uni, but I figured that was definitely not a good sign....so I manually shut off my computer, restarted, and everything appears fine...except that I lost around 1 hour of gameplay.
I just find it odd that something like that would happen, especially when I've had no problems except late game slowdown to date.
NOTE: I also find it interesting that my computer, while fairly good for a laptop, seems to run Civ4 so much better than just about everyone else on here. No bugs, no errors, no CTD, my only problem was late game slowdown on huge and large maps....and even THAT is while running Civ4 with graphics turned to max in every area except AA, that is set to 2 instead of 4.
... 
).
) and a 1.6GHz 64-bit processor...am i wasting my time?
If you barely met the required heck if you even barely met the recommended in games these days you shouldn't expect it to run great even with lowest settings. Required = just able to run pathetic but running, Recommended = Run with lowest setting not great just descently, that seems to be how publishers gadge things lately.
