I have the same issue. Single player, Campaign work great, but when I try to join multiplayer I crash to the desktop and get this error message.
I bought the dl version from Morphicon. I've already had issues with the sound drivers that came from ASUS so I switched to the Nvidia audio drivers and that allowed me to actually play the game. I'm leaning towards my motherboard as being the problem. Who else is having issues with Asus MOBOs? particularly the A7N8X series. I've updated all drivers and I'm not sure what to do next. Anyone have any ideas?
SYSTEM SPECS
-Asus A7N8X-Deluxe
-AMD Athlon 3200+
-1GB DDR 400
-Nvidia 7800GS
-WD 120GB ATA
Update 12-08-2006
OK I figured it out. check this post on Morphicon's forum
Morphicon Forum's
I had to move the original OPENAL32.dll and then update with this version. OpenAL32.dll After that it worked perfectly.