Check this out,

Running Empire Earth on two Windows 10 devices (Laptop and Desktop). When I start a LAN game, both players freeze when someone tries to build a Barracks. Tried all the usual advice - used 3D Analyzer with forced Pixel shading 1.1, disabled all the wanky Graphics details so it's on super basic, both are using 800x600 16 bit. The game seems to work Okay in single player mode, but it seems the multiplayer causes an issue.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Okay. So problem was 16-bit color. Changed both players to 32-bit and no more issues.