Laptop video card upgrade?
 

Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core QL-64
4.00 GB RAM (8GB max)
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics

I'm trying to run Empire Total War and it is a nightmare. Is this simply the video or sound card?

Empire minimally requires:
Operating System: Windows XP 32(service pack 2), Windows Vista 32 OS.
Processor: 2.4 GHz Single Core Intel or AMD equivalent processor.
System Memory: 1GB RAM (XP) 2GB RAM (Vista).
Graphics Card: 256MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (shader 2.0 or higher).
Sound Card: Directx9.0c compatible sound card.
Windows compatible mouse & keyboard.
15 GB free uncompressed hard drive space.

It's generally not possible (or advisable) to upgrade video cards in laptops. It might be possible if the laptop you purchased was offered with more than one video card option.

It can't be the best of cards if it's got a lesser score than the 8400m gs (which is what my Vostro 1500 had) -- Notebookcheck: ATI Radeon HD 3200

Do you have the ability to play with less-intensive settings or a lower resolution? What model of laptop do you have?

Edit: Just noticed that your card is an onboard one. You won't be able to upgrade that. Also, your card does not meet those minimum requirements listed as it has no dedicated graphics memory.

I guess I probably should've asked what you mean by "it is a nightmare". I assumed you meant bad framerate, but now I'm not so sure...

Yeah the framerate is awful. The laptop is a Gateway NV52.

So, are there any options to get this game to work on my laptop?

Oh,and the game already set itself to "low" quality so can't really do much more with that.

I'm afraid not.