I've tried everything to get them to work, but nothing seems to help. I've done all of the stuff that's been suggested on the Age of Wonders forum to try fixing the problem, to no avail. I could really use some help with this GoG, as I've never played these games before and would like to.

I'm using Windows 7 64 bit, graphics card ATI Radeon HD 5700.

Same thing has been asked in these threads on the AoW forums, haven't found a solution.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/age_of_wonders/age_of_wonders_2_and_shadow_magic_and_black_screen_flickering

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/age_of_wonders/flickering_screen_problems

Also, whenever I try and start up the first game, I just get a blank screen and no startup movie, just audio and I can skip it but there's no movie there.

Have you tried actually contacting GOG through the regular support channels? Posting on the forum will get other members to help you, but the GOG support guys don't really hang out here.

I get that with King's Bounty sometimes.....sometimes it just goes away with a bit of time in-game.

No I haven't. I don't see the point though seeing as how they probably won't respond to my problem since they have bigger fish to fry than solve problems with little old Age of Wonders. ~cough~new publishers~cough~new releases~cough~announcement for an announcement for a future announcement~cough~The Witcher~cough~

They have helped me many a time and in a timely manner, sooooooooo... you could have just wasted time or missed your opportunity to get them. I wouldn't just assume they won't come through. Best of luck, anyway.

I'm not sure this particularly applies to Age of Wonders, but on other games in which I have screen flicker problems, I would turn off/turn down Catalyst AI to its minimum level. *Usually* solves the flickering problem.

Been a long time since I really played AowSM, but yes windowed will likely fix that problem, but will also remove a bunch of the effects, as they're fullscreen only if I recall.
The going black for a short period of time and then back again sounds like it might be switching resolutions. Under the config (at least for shadow magic, in the gog.com/Age of wonders shadow magic menu) there's an option not to allow resolution switching.
Also I use software cursor rather than hardware, thought it looked nicer. And if Use Direct3D isn't checked, check that. I had graphics glitches aplenty with Diciples II, when I found my way into the config, it turned out that Direct3D wasn't enabled, once I enabled that the graphics stabilized for me.

Do you have updated DirectX? (9, not 10/11)? It would be the first thing Support would ask anyway.
And you should contact them IMHO, TheEnigmaticT mentioned some time ago that GOG boosted numbers of Support minions. You may get reply sooner than you think.

With the recent promo I'm giving this a bump, and I've already sent a message to GoG's technical support a few days ago with this issue. Haven't received a response yet.

Also, whenever I try and start up the first game, I just get a blank screen and no startup movie, just audio and I can skip it but there's no movie there.

I'm having the same problem:

Age of Wonders Startup Problem on Windows 7 64-bit

Like the other people have said, contacting support doesn't hurt at all. Throwing your hands up and giving up before even trying is kind of... presumptuous.

I contacted support about a little game called "Shattered Steel" at midnight one time. They responded the next morning.

I really doubt that "Shattered Steel" was a big budget brand new game devoting all of GOG's attention, considering that it came out in 1995.

I don't know if this applies but a lot of my older games get all screwed up with what appears to be a negative palet combined with flickering UNLESS I turn off Explorer at which point they run great. Specifically anything using the AOE2 engline such as AOE2 and Star Wars Galactic Battkegrounds.

Guys... this thread was started 1.5 year ago... we have a necromancer on board ;-) Be careful, Inquisitor is after you ;)

Not what I was hoping for but it did work. Thanks for the help.

Guess I'll just go with playing the Age of Wonders games on windowed mode for now.