EE-AoC Crashing to Desktop

[kubel]

Ok, some preliminary info:
-Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-Geforce 7900GS (tried default Windows 7 driver, 196.21, 185.85)
-Running EE AoC with both patches
-Tried both CD and no-CD, no difference

Problem:
Game installs fine, starts up fine, but once a game is launched (whether multiplayer or single player), game crashes to desktop (100% of the time). I've tried all compatibility modes, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I've even tried formatting and starting with a completely fresh installation of Windows. I get the following error which isn't much helpful as it only makes reference to ntdll.dll (64-bit NT kernel functions).

Code: Select all

Faulting application name: EE-AOC.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x594d0000
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdb3b
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0003317f
Faulting process id: 0xf04
Faulting application start time: 0x01cabfbcf7ab8390
Faulting application path: C:\Sierra\Empire Earth - The Art of Conquest\EE-AOC.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll

I've played this game on Windows 7 with no problems before. I stopped playing EE for a while due to working a lot lately. When I tried playing again, it did this. The game will also crash to the desktop when I change my graphics card or acceleration mode in settings, so I'm leaning toward the likelihood that it's a graphics driver issue. I've already tried 2 versions, I'm wondering if there's someone out there with a Geforce 7 series card running Windows 7 64-bit that can tell me what driver version they are having success playing EE with.

Thanks.

[DJay]

hey.
i have windows 7 and i have the
197.45 WHQL
installed.

[pellet]

ergh registrating for htis board was a pain.. anyways!
My friend and I kept trying to play multiplayer but we kept getting this error with ntdll.dll in empire earth plus empire earth aoc.
We managed to get it working by booting up a game with the computer in it, then hosting a game again with a human player in it. Hope this works for you!
Cheers
-pellet