If anyone is experiencing freezes every 5-20 minutes under windows 7, heroes 3 (platinum version from Buka): install the game, make a copy of the game folder in another location, and delete the original (installed) one. In the game folder, set all .exe files to compatibility mode with windows 98/me. Regarding patches, only the one for fixing 100% CPU usage was installed, as well as the map generator for SoD (which doesn't work). Result - 5 hours of gameplay without freezes (then I exited the game).