Do you have an ATI X800 or older video card, by any chance? Also, run dxdiag. Start -> run -> dxdiag in xp.

Err, I can't find the video card in that list. I'm not sure the GPU is listed in the Dxdaig. But could the graphics card be on board?

You've got a pretty high spec cpu and 3gb of ram there, which is more than enough, but you haven't included the video card information.

In dxdiag click on save all information, then copy the text from the save file into your post. or just look at the display tab in dxdiag and tell us what video card you have ie what model of radeon

In dxdiag, click Save all information, then copy the contents of the text file it saves here. That should say everything.

There is a ton of stuff, so I didn't want to copy too much. I think this shows what I have: 

 BIOS: BIOS Date: 12/13/07 15:38:29 Ver: 08.00.12
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
             Memory: 3070MB RAM
          Page File: 2420MB used, 3960MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x950F)
         DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_950F&SUBSYS_25421002&REV_00
   Display Memory: 1787 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 507 MB
    Shared Memory: 1279 MB
     Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: ACER AL2216W
      Driver Name: atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.dat,atitmmxx.dll
   Driver Version: 7.14.0010.0555 (English)
      DDI Version: 10
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 12/20/2007 21:48:28, 3031040 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-D64F-11CF-9971-4805A1C2CA35}
        Vendor ID: 0x1002
        Device ID: 0x950F
        SubSys ID: 0x25421002
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C

Also, drivers should be up to date.

I believe it was stated earlier that their may be issues with the crossfire drivers.

Well, just updated the drivers, and now there's a new problem.

The whole screen is covered in a giant blueish white flicker. I can see the battleground in the background, but the flicker covers most of the screen, and moves so fast that I can't see past.

Any thoughts?

Not sure how to post a screenshot. I took a few (although they all show the same thing, really), but I can't find a way to just attach to my post.

I checked the Catalyst Control Center, but  couldn't find anything about Geometric Instancing, but it's possible that I don't know where to look.

Thanks for all of your help so far. Hopefully this isn't happening to many others out there, and if it is, this thread will help them solve the problem in the future.

If I had known that I was going to have so many issues with this card + vista, I would have gone a different route.

Still can't get things working on this end. Having a similar experience with Political Machine 08. Things that are supposed to appear either don't show up, or show as a flashing black light (whereas in this game, it's a giant flashing white light).

That's befuddling. Do you have any problems with any other games? Try looking around in your drivers for an option to disable crossfire and only use one GPU. It'll lower your performance, so turn it back on if you want to play something intense, but it may fix this problem. Also make sure your card is being cooled properly.

look in the catalyst control panel - look to disable crossfire/multi-gpu

edit: I had a quick look at the ati site - apparently most single card crossfire setups cannot have crossfire disabled - the only exception is the 4-Dvi port 3870x2

quote: Q: I have a single 38x0X2 card and dont see a crossfire section in the CCC whats up with that?
A: You wont see one as its enabled by default so theres no section as theres nothing to change in that case.
2 X2 cards will obviously be able to disable Crossfire between the two cards but still wont disable single card Crossfire. There is one exception to this, the 4 port DVI 3870X2 cards can enable or disable Crossfire since otherwise the 2 extra DVI ports wouldn't work.

source: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=262&threadid=93311&enterthread=y

So, if your graphics card has 4 monitor connectors on the back, you can disable crossfire in catalyst, under the crossfire tab. If your card only has 2 dvi connectors, you cant disable crossfire

But then again, crossfire might not even be the problem.

I cannot for the life of me find a crossfire tab under the catalyst control panel.

Anything ELSE I can try? To say that this frustrating is an understatement. I understand that this is only a beta, but since the same thing is happening with Political Machine, they must be somehow connected.