There's not much to say really. I've tried with DirectDraw=0 and without, with unofficial patch and without, and installing to the Programx86 directory and not.

All no dice.

I have Win 7 64-bit, and my laptop is a Lenovo G570. The native rez is 1366x768 but I have tried several others to no effect.

I am quite disappointed - was there a warning that I missed while buying the game, that it is not compatible with this version of windows? If not, there should be.

Can anyone help please?

The game definitely can run on Windows 7. If you haven't already done so, try different compatibility settings. (Right-click shortcut --> Properties --> Compatibility tab). If that doesn't help, see this thread:

http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?6902-It-s-crashing!!-Would-love-some-help-from-you-lovely-people!

for additional suggestions (that poster was running Vista, but the suggestions there would also apply to Windows 7).