I have the same exact problem, i have spent about 10 min waiting for the world to load, it never did so i just closed the process for the game...

Specs:

Windows XP Pro, SP1

1.2Ghz AMD Athlon (sock a)
1024MB RAM
GeForce 4 Ti 4600

DirectX Version should not matter because the game runs using OpenGL API not D3D, i think the game only uses DX for input/networking. But i do have DirectX9 installed.

Latest video card drivers are installed.

Edited
===============

I decided to let it play for a while while i typed the message and it actualy worked.. Wow only 5 min rofl..

This is kinda nuts, ive rendered 5,000,000 poly models in 3d Studio Max faster then that.... :-/