I have a P2-450, w/128mb RAM, and a 16mb Riva TNT video card, and that same lockup happens to me.
I think its related to Dx and sound. The game works perfectly for me with Dx5 installed. When I upgraded to Dx6.x, the lockups began (in both AoE and RoR.)
I have been able to unfreeze it by ejecting the CD, and hitting ALT-TAB, ALT-ESC, CTRL-ALT-DEL, and the Windows key on my keyboard like mad, then re-inserting the CD. After a sec or 2 pause while the CD spins back up, the game will unfreeze. If it doesn't, eject the CD again, then hit the keys again, then re-insert the CD and the game should unfreeze. SAVE YOUR GAME once you get control back! After the game unfreezes, you can play again for a little while, then it'll prob freeze again, so just do the above procedure again. Quite annoying, but it works for me.
I used to have a SB-AWE64, but changed it for a SBLive! and it still does it.. I also tried the NOMUSIC, and MIDIMUSIC commandline parameters, (and MSYNC when I had the AWE64), but it didn't help. Ah well. -----
Rush
[This message has been edited by Rushian (edited 03-19-99).]