Civilization 4 on Windows 7

If you install and attempt to run Civilization 4 on Windows 7 you will likely receive an error similiar to the following:

I was able to resolve this by downloading and installing the latest released runtime version of DirectX. I suppose if you install and play many games you likely have a newer version of the DirectX runtime, but this game was my favorite and was the first (and currently only) DirectX game I am running under Windows 7.