Age of Empires III Patch Error. Please help.

I've installed all the patches and reinstalled the game several times but
when I try to patch it, it gives me an error that says: "There is a problem
with your game installation. You may have to reinstall the game to fix it."
I've installed all the patches I could find for Vista regarding this issue
and I still get this error. The game plays fine, just not on multiplayer
(which is what I really care about) when it tells me I need to have the same
patch version as the person I'm playing with.

Incidentally, when I run the installer on the CD, there are all these weird
things that say "IDS_..." Additionally, the shortcut that was installed
doesn't work either, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the
patching problem above, with which I'm more concerned about? Does this game
patch at all on Vista or have I just wasted my money on a patchless game?
Thanks.