Do you have an Nvidia graphics card in your machine?  Normally, it’s always best to keep your graphics card up-to-date with the latest driver…but it’s not the case for Nvidia’s latest version (191.07).  According to EA, there are issues of compatibility with these drivers and The Sims 3 which prevents the user from potentially playing the game.  If you are using an older driver and your game works, it’s best to stay with what you have until a fix is released.  If you did update your drivers and have this problem, then you may want to restore your drivers back to the version before you updated.

Keep up-to-date on the status of these drivers by visiting EA’s Help page.