Heroes 3 issues under XP or Vista.

Okay, so here's the problem with Heroes 3: The Shadow of Death: it's almost the same as everyone else's. I have Windows XP and DirectX 9.0c. The first launch after installation or reinstallation takes about 3-5 minutes, and I can even manage to play a couple of battles. All subsequent launches are much faster, to the point where I can click a couple of buttons in the main menu and that's it. The game freezes, the music freezes, and the only way to close this mess is through the Task Manager. I read the whole thread, tried to find where to put a checkmark for compatibility, but there's nothing. There's no such option for me. Not a word about compatibility in the shortcut properties. Then I tried installing patches. I checked the game version: 3.0. I ran the patch from 3.0 to 3.2. Everything seemed to be patched to 100%. I check the version: it's still 3.0. Then I tried this

Often, when installing Heroes, if they weren't properly written to the disk, there are difficulties.
Sometimes this small file - a registry file - helps!
Or this small crack.

but it didn't help either. Can anyone help me? I have a cracked version from Buka. What should I do? My childhood game doesn't want to save me from boredom again... :( I'm feeling down...