Can you please give us the version number for your game and the specs for your system?

You can wait the 5 minutes. Sorry man, that machine just isn't going to cut it for high speed gaming.

If you want to do someting simple to improve your performance, purchase another 512 MB of memory. Standard XP should never be run with less than 512.

If you want to play on gigantic or immense maps, I would suggest that you get a new computer.

-- Celeron processors are intentionally underpowered (get what you pay for)
-- Sis chipsets suck, and so do Via.
-- XP uses about 200mb of memory just starting up. GalCiv can use 2000mb of mmeory. That leaves a pretty large deficit.

Sorry I don't have better news.

I have a computer about as old as yours, a laptop as well, and slightly better but similar specs.

My advice?

Get your game set up, start the load, and then go get your snacks. (Or am I the only one that plays GalCiv whilst snacking? Surely not.)

It's just long enough to run down to the kitchen, get a drink, get whatever victuals look good, and get back just in time to be told "Let's go kill some stuff".

225 MB RAM?

All I can say is, "Ouch!" That probably isn't going to take you very far.

Isn't it strange how specs have evolved over the many years PC_gaming stuff has been around? Anyone must upgrade their desktops_laptops combo to comply with the industry everchanging requirements for a decent gear.

The latest example being Crysis, everyone has got to wonder if there's actually a highly complex plot devised by a mysterious conglomerate of Hardware_Software manufacturers to enforce consumers into a griddy spending pattern, constantly. Paranoia? Please do prove it, otherwise.
Thus, the deception shown by the OP might not be soooo rare afterall in our modern world.

Count me in the people who'd certainly wish (and has in a looooooong time!) for a much better PC; only prob is - available money!

MS-Vista hegemony, DirectX-10, Giga-RAM, TeraBytes storage HDrives, realtime smooth(er,est) graphics rendition at full-3D re-textured with bazillions of polygons, DVD, Blue-Ray... name it.

Yup, having just simple personal fun is an expense. Relative to one's ability to fit in our somehow crazy social trends & tricky needs.
Call it the www rush to brainwashing a collective, indirectly.

Pay to play or stay away. Ay, what else could humanity ever detect in all or any free-market opportunities, comin' foreign or straight from down-the-familiar-streets?

In fact, i would agree that most laptops are surely_absolutely NOT made for high-end level games, though. I'll take static_stable (costly, btw) support anytime to mobile advantages.

Ay, Ay.

I would disagree partially with most opinions about laptops I've read around here.

I have an Inspiron 9300 I purchased summer of '05. I have done absolutely no tweaking to it (though this particular model has A LOT of overclocking headroom). I have my laptop hooked up to a 26" monitor and I can play GalCiv2 on max resolution and highest settings with no problems (the monitor's real-estate really shines with GalCiv2).

I am not here to be a fan-boy for laptops, of course desktops will always be more capable; but laptops are not really that far behind. Matter of fact, there's a video on YouTube of some dude who tweaked his I-9300 (same model as mine) with a new CPU and new GPU, some cooling, maxed out RAM, and is able to play Crysis on modest settings.

No need to bash that much.

Anyway, to the original owner of the post:

Dude, you need to upgrade very badly, I got a 1.7 CPU, 256 GeForce 6800, 2GB RAM. You need to have that or more to really get the most out of GalCiv2, or else your computer might become unstable when you've progressed into a game, since it has to account for a lot more things (more ships, more AI threads, etc).

It isn't actually that highly complex. Ask any marketer. And as for who is at the head of that particular cabal, his initials are BG.

but you didn't hear it from me. We never spoke and this computer will self destruct in five seconds.