hello:

on age of empires 2: AOK, and Conquerors alike, whenever i run a LAN, or Internet game as a host, or client, when the game starts, it crashes to desktop.

i can be in the chat room, select my options, and click the "im ready" button. but when the game actually loads, it just quits to desktop.

single player games do not crash.

things i know/tryed:

- no firewall, a direct modem connection
- updated DX 9.0b (problem pre-existant to update)
- updated nvidia gf4 mx 420 drivers
- re-installed game 2x
- tried with and without 1.0c patch for conquerors, AOK already updated on retail CD.

i hunted through some forums by searching google, i found a few other people with this same problem. usually the best answer they got was update video drivers, and re-install the game...

is my video card perhaps conflicting? i remember at one time being able to play this game online, i did have a gf4 ti at the time, which was about a year ago. i also have a new motherboard since then too. but this problem would occur occasionaly as well back then, but i was able to work around it then somehow?

any help much appreciated!
thanks!