I have installed Civ4 recently on Ubuntu using Cedega. I have never had problems running Civ4 on Vista, however, the patching process is buggy. Always download you patches, do not use the in-game installer.

I've been playing it on Vista and haven't had a single issue, did you try downloading the latest patches before you ran it?

Civ 3 > Civ 4

And Civ 2 is better then 3.

Yet they keep adding just enough that i can't go back to the other versions.

If i could get Civ 2 with borders and religion....

 I never played Civ 2, but I have played Civ 3 at length.  I  do not see how Civ 3 could be any better than Civ 4.  They basically tore down the entire engine and built it anew for Civ 4 improving on every aspect.

I love my civ3 user made scenarios but I suppose they have some decent ones for 4 now also.

The Ryse and Fall one that comes with Beyond the Sword is pretty fun.

I never new it isn't supposed to work on Vista. I...downloaded...it and it works fine on Vista for me. Maybe you ought to look into...downloading...if nothing else works.