I've encountered crash at 0x00445B9D address during Stronghold startup on my new laptop.
During my investigation of inability to set 1024x768 resolution for Age of Empires I've noted that 800x600 & 1024x768 resolution are restricted for my system.
I supposed that Stronghold crashes for the same reason - as I remember it uses 800x600 at least at startup. Probably Stronghold relies on fact that any PC of end of CRT era supports archaic 800x600.
It's shame for ATI to restrict standard 1024x768 & 800x600 resolutions by default. But at least they left 640x480 for us unrestricted.
Allowing the 1024x768 & 800x600 resolutions helped to run Stronghold successfully.
Small how-to:
1. Open regedit, go to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{your_ati_video_card_id}\0000]
2. Open DALRestrictedModesBCD1 parameter
3. You will probably recognize descriptions of 800x600 & 1024x768 inside of this parameter. These descriptions should be deleted. Use picture in attachment as an example.
4. Reboot your PC
To my mind this solutions can be also used for other Good Old Games.

That sounds really strange, on my HD6870 I just have to set image scaling to maintain aspect ratio in CCC and it all seems to work fine.