that ^^is exactly what happened to me.i did everything absolutely as you did, and i got the same error, can you check whether yours is also creating an error in some bogus temp file (~something), can't remember the name right now, anyway until now i thought that it was because of my cd, but maybe it is 98se, i'm running it too.i'll try it on my xp and get back to you
i just tracked what happens when i start the game and this is it:
when i start the game, it automatically creates a couple of files in windows/temp directory and one of them is the one that causes the game to crash.it seems to me that that file might a part of the protection system.or not