Has anyone found the solution yet ?! I was able to play the game fine on a low spec win98 PC with a simple Riva TNT 64 (does any one remember these??) and unable to do so on my much higher spec winXP laptop with an ATI X1400 ... really frustrating Age of nations, AoE III and the rest are all ok ... Just AoE II doesn't work ... You bet I have directDraw!! (dxdiag performed wonderfully!) I even tried the stupid suggestions in MS Knowledge base ... of course they didn't work ... any help is appreciated ... i really miss this game!