Vista - problem playing games

I have just bought Age of Empires III and Rome Total War and am having problems with Vista. My PC has far greater than the min specs.

I keep getting the error message

"Age of Empires 3 has stopped working" then it fails to find a solution. The same happens with Rome. I have tried opeining it under XP, 98/ME etc and as an administrator. I have also downloaded patches and updates for the games and for vista. Having been on MS website I've tried all of their recommended solutions.

Can anyone help? I'm really losing patience and just want to play some strategy games!