When I launch the game message appears "The game may not be consistant because AGP is deactivated. Please activate AGP for consistancy"
Its normal if you have this message, because your graphic card is probably integrated without external memory (for example Intel card not ati nvidia), it doesnt have any deal with login.
About login, i oftenen have similar problems but i think the new anti ddos login system is so hard, that if you do something bad like spam few times login, its automaticaly disable you to login, try wait 1min and try again.
However one of my accounts i cant login empire today, it hold on server chose, when i chose GF OBT i can login...