My comp runs Vista and has an AMD 64 athlon.

But the thing is I will load up CIV 3 and I can barely go for 15 minutes without freezing. I have the same problem with Spore, darkstar one and even counter strike to an extent.

Whats your specs?

Sounds like you have a crappy graphics card.

It's your graphics card. If you don't know what it is, it's rubbish integrated graphics.

A cheap add-in PCI-E board will fix that.

You could also need more memory, perhaps.

My CPU can handle crysis on high, but my graphics card can barely handle a PS2 game..

So its not a good balance.

consider upgrading the ram or graphics card? it helped my desktop when it was playing shittally

Lol, all of that laptops that I've owned have a rubbish Intel intergrated graphics card.

Luckily, my most recent one is still smooth, and can run the likes of Spore or Sims 3 on a normal FPS rate.

You'll need double the RAM just to have Vista, to get same performance as XP lol. How fast is the Athlon 64? Seems like you need to upgrade everything since you don't tell us the specs.

Everyone is all like "It's your crappy graphics card". While that is a possibility, it is also a possible heat issue. Video games are one of the most stressful things you can do to your computer. Therefore, if your computer has a small heat problem, it would probably manifest itself then.

You should run this program: http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm
It will stress test your system and point out any errors it encounters with your processor, RAM, video, etc. If your computer suddenly shuts down without any errors, that can be indicative of a heat problem. Good luck.

I think it's RAM - not enough of it.