I've seen that many people have had this problem before but still cannot find a solution.

After installing a screen capture software my DirectDraw was disabled.
I've already installed latest videocard drivers (Geforce9800 GTX), apparently there is no way in Vista 64 to Enable/disble Directdraw/Direct3d.

The 64 bit Dxdiag shows no problems but there is no way to re-enable DX at 32 bit.

Any help is really appreciated

Uninstall the software, then system restore back to when you didn't install the app.

I've been all over the internet and I've figured out this problem (at least for me). I tried turning off my graphics driver and using the default VGA to no avail. I tried editing a bunch of things in shortcut (-NoStartup -NoTerrain, etc) and that didn't work. Here's the problem:

I'm using a NETBOOK, and the limited resolution aspect ratios make it so Age of Empires can't 'draw'. I fixed it by forcing my screen to use a 1024x768 resolution (800x600 works also) instead of the what it naturally does (1024x576). Here's how you can do this:

NetBook Screen Resolution 1024x768 or Higer with out Scrolling ~ CE's Geekbook

Hope I save a few people headaches!

-Alex
alexcoulombe.com