Bumping this since I'm having the same problem. The only difference is I'm on 32-bit XP. I believe I've tried the same fixes as the above gentleman.
I've also tried reinstalling the game a few times. After a fresh instal, when I enter the activation code, it seems to crash before it completes. It does not prompt me to enter the code again, however. When I delete the two folders (C:\ . . . \SEGA Corporation), I am prompted to enter the code again. When I do this time, the activation seems to finish. The game still crashes with the runtime error, though.
Fohmyn, if you happen to get it working, please post how in this thread.