This was my first entry into the series after playing Civ Rev ps3.
I loved using the infinate money/steal cities exploit before it was patched. I would spend hours letting countries built up against me, only to use that glitch to build ICBM and nuke to high heavens.
The soundtrack was great too! I loved the acient theme. I had a lor of the ost on my mp3 player.
I doubt it runs on linux. Last time I tried 15 years ago, it ran but everything was black and the mouse wouldn't capture within the game window.