I am also experiencing the same thing:
I just purchased Civ IV, installed the 1.61 patch, tried to run the game, and ... nothing. The loading screen pops up, disappears, and then nothing happens. Does anybody have a solution to this issue? I have searched the forums here for the better part of two hours and have found no solutions to this issue, but a few open threads with the same problem.
I have Windows XP Professional, and meet all other hardware requirements. Any thoughts on this are appreciated.