...found something interesting, but I must say for today, I have to get back to work! Anyway, I renamed my plugins folder just so it wouldn't load, and put the new NAM in the newly created plugins folder...and only the new NAM. The game loaded fine, and of course much faster because there was virtually nothing in the plugins folder except for NAM (that is the plugins folder in My Documents/SimCity 4...)
So what this confirms for me is that I have something in my real plugins folder that is causing a conflict. It has got me thinking, that it may be a texture. I did notice with just a cursory look that my z-whatever folders have some NAM elements, in the old version, whereas these folders are within the new Network Addon folder. So, thinking out loud...maybe if I take out those z-folders, it may work....and speaking of work, I've got to get back to it...so I'll try the above later on today to see if that works.
Bruce