Ok...First, I know I screwed up, because I don't have the files...and I started a new game. Sorry.
Anyway, I moved an army into a forest, and got a black screen for a few seconds, and then a nice view of my desktop.
My system is running windows XP
I have
Intel E8500 processor
Nvidia 9800 GTX+
and 2 gigs of ram.
sound card is the ancient Soundblaster Live!
Now, I'm not going to blame the game, because I'm running Service pack 2, instead of SP3. However, hopefully this can help a little? I'm anxiously awaiting my next crash so I can send you the report.