If you are having problems with the game freezing on the videos (including the EA/Westwood splash screen), try changing the sound hardware acceleration. How: Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Volume -> Advanced (under Speaker settings) -> Performance. Set Hardware acceleration to "Basic Acceleration" (second from left). That's for WinXP Pro SP2, the exact path might vary on different service packs/operating systems, but should generally be similar.