I am too but I am attempting to play New Vegas but its the same engine.  This is the exact same error I am getting when the game tries to load.  I am attempting to work with Steam on this problem but all they did was point me to the "data files" option on the game launcher with no other help beyond that so far.  I suspect they think I can make a mod out of a batch file?  It was kind of sparse and cryptic on their part.  It's amazing.  This is a company that makes money from selling software.  I don't make money doing this and yet I'm working harder on the problem than they are.

I don't know what your system is but mine is an Intel Graphics Adapter 82865G graphic controller driver (865G chipset).

For anyone with Intel graphics ...
Zone Rendering (how it works)
http://download.intel.com/support/graphics/intel845g/whitepaper.pdf

According to this guy he is able to use 3da with Steam ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a214y8IMzvo

It hasn't worked for me but I'm trying to spoof a different game than him.