Problems with accessing internet games

[Bill Odie]

I've been trying to set up an account via the civ4 disk (vanilla version) so I can play online games, but it says I need to download a patch upgrade and when I do and install it It won't let me go on the game and I have to do a system restore which cancells the download.

Has anyone experienced this problem before and does anyone know how to solve it? I'm XP if it helps.