If you've been playing with the BtS expansion, the resolution can be set through My Games\Beyond the Sword\CivilizationIV.ini as ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight. I'd suggest to use your desktop resolution. Within the game app, the resolution can be set via the Options screen under "Advanced" on the opening menu or, within a running game, via Ctrl+O or Esc, "Options". On the "Graphics" tab, there's a drop-down menu "Resolution." It's strange though that some key press is supposed to have changed the reolution. I guess some sequence of Ctrl+O, Tab and arrow keys or the mouse wheel could do the trick. Perhaps you've toggled the "flying camera" through Ctr+Alt+F. But I think that's normally blocked via CivilizationIV.ini (AllowFlying). Maybe worth a try. Alt+F (satellite/ top-down view) could also be pressed by accident, but wouldn't make the screen nearly unreadable. A screenshot should make the matter clearer.