Looking for help getting battle for middle earth (the first one) to run

Hi all.

I'm going nuts trying to get the first battle for middle earth game to run
on vista 64 bit.

I've tried installing it in compatibility mode, as admin, running
everything in that as well, and the evil copy protection still keeps
kicking in and killing my party after a few minutes of play.

(Which makes it harder to find out if your latest install/patches etc have
worked)

Yes, this is a full blown retail copy of the game.

Just want to make it work. Help?

Dan.