Age of empires 3 instant crash

J0815

Honorable
Apr 12, 2013
2
0
10,510
I can't get AOE 3 to start, I've searched online and found many solutions except one to my problem, the guy that posted about it was left unanswered.

I Start AOE 3 but nothing happens, in task manager it shows it's running but nothing else. I finally received an error code, now nothing is happening. It's crashing instantly, not even 2 seconds in the task manager.

I have tried all attempts I've read. Compatibility mode for Vista AND XP, restarted pc, uninstalled and reinstalled, I am running it as an administrator, I tried running it without intro movies, All drivers are up to date. I turned off firewall/antivirus to install and try running the game. all does the same exact thing. Crashes instantly

Here is the error code I got once.

Error Code: 12
TR_Decrypt: Failed to get the transaction encryption key
Param 1:0
Param 2:42 //this number changes every time

here is my pc specs:

Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
4gb ddr2 ram
AMD Phenom x3 8750b
GT 240 1gb ddr3
Direct X 11