Rise of Nations error

So I installed Rise of Nations on my Acer Aspire One (120gb with Windows XP), but whenever I attempt to run the game it plays the first few cinematics and then kicks me out with the error "Rise of Nations cannot run with monitor display set to 256 colors. Please change monitor display to 16-bit color or greater."

I have read this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820089

But the 945GM chipset is not mentioned anywhere on there. I have tried changing the resolution, using older drivers and changing compatibility settings but so far no luck. Any suggestions?

 

Good news, I got it working! After trying various different methods I finally got the game running using a little program called "AsTray Plus".

Go here for more info (scroll down for download links):
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=18260

Go here for install instructions:
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/astrayplus

As of right now the game appears to be rather laggy, although I'm running version 1.0 of the game and tried messing with some of the code so that could be the issue. I'll update this thread when I've tried it with a fresh install and updated to the latest version.

UPDATE: Installed and updated the game, it now runs smooth as silk. I'm a very happy panda right now. In order for this to run you will need your monitor set at 1024x768.

 

So does this mean that you can't play the game on the native display? I would love to be able to play without having to hook up an external monitor.