Ive been having the issue for awhile. I gave up at one point but finally got tired of the AI. After trying to get the voobly patches my AoM stopped working. After deleting then reinstalling AoM I got it to start working (without vooblys patches or any way to play online). After trying yet again to get the right patches to play online this error pops up everytime I try to open the game. I have changed the compatibility ****s so thats not it PLZ HELP I WAN PRAY

Patch shouldn't be responsible for this as it doesn't touch this file - from what I've found, reinstall should fix this issue exactly as you suggest, you can also download the file and insert it manually to avoid reinstall it seems, but I've also found that it could be some malware/virus messing with it, so I would recommend running some malware scan looking at your unusual pattern.

Btw are you getting the Patches the standard way, ie through the mod page automatic install? And are you also trying to put in some other mods that could be causing this?