Age of Empires multiplayer crash problem

My system configuration is Windows XP Home with Service Pack 2, DX 9.0c and AoE 1.0c. I installed Age of Empires 1 which went without any problem. I’m also able to play this fine in single player. But when I try to join Multiplayer by clicking multiplayer from the menu, game freezes completely and my entire system becomes unresponsive. No buttons works. The only way to get back to normal is by hard reboot.

Is there anyone else facing such problem or is it just me? How can fix the problem? Many thanks.

Even i had exactly the same problem with AOE 2 the conqueres on my Windows Vista system. Anyways, i managed to fix it by re-installing the game.

You can also try out the same and see if it works for you.