This is driving me nuts. I've installed the game run an older patch and the newest ones and it doesn't even run.

Everything is up to date Directx and my drivers. What could be the problem??

you only need the latest beta update (it auto installs an old patch if needed)

so reinstall then install the latest beta only.

I tried that, no dice.

If i install barebones off the CD i'll get a giant blank screen followed by an error, then if i install WA update 3.6.28.0 i get a small black screen in the upper left hand corner which flashes a few times and is followed by this error which shows up of course in the error log like this
wa caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module wa.exe at 001b:004094c7.

Exception handler called in ExceptionAttacher.cpp - AfxWinMain.
Error occurred at 9/3/2007 23:12:56.
C:\Team17\Worms Armageddon\wa.exe, run by Dave.
Operating system: Windows XP (5.1.2600).
2 processor(s), type 586.
41% memory in use.
1007 MBytes physical memory.
585 MBytes physical memory free.
2424 MBytes paging file.
2081 MBytes paging file free.
2048 MBytes user address space.
1967 MBytes user address space free.
Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.

Context:
EDI: 0x00000a28 ESI: 0x00000002 EAX: 0x007b1a94
EBX: 0x00000001 ECX: 0x007b1a94 EDX: 0x00000000
EIP: 0x004094c7 EBP: 0x0013b028 SegCs: 0x0000001b
EFlags: 0x00010293 ESP: 0x0013b01c SegSs: 0x00000023

Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 02 8b 0d 3c 5f 6b 00 51 8b 50 2c ff d2 89 45

Please compress and upload the entire errorlog.

http://download.yousendit.com/A0DDA9774350A51B

here it is