Heighdy-ho, there.
I played the original
Civilization frequently back in the DOS Age, then later stepped up to
Civ II when it came out, but somehow it didn't quite have the same appeal. I managed to miss
Civ III (I guess I blinked), but a friend of mine showed me
Civilization IV on his PC and I thought I'd give it a shot.
My copy's on order, and I thought I should find a good fan site in case any technical problems came up, plus I figured it'd be a good source of other perspectives in playing the game. I found that out when I joined the
Sid Meier's Pirates! Hooked on Pirates (formerly Cutlass Island) a year ago; not only was able to resolve a few glitches, I was able to keep abreast of news and learn about some of the game's features, as well as make my own contributions. (I'm one of several acknowledged gurus for the where-is-this-treasure-map-directing-me? issue there).
Pirates! notwithstanding, my favorite PC games are mostly the 4X genre (no, not
that 
; eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) such as, well,
Civilization, Alpha Centauri, Colonization (hmm, I see a trend here),
Master of Orion, Master of Magic, Reach For The Stars, etc.