According to the Encyclopedia of Arda, the Ring was lost for two and a half millennia after Isildur was slain, and he was slain in year 2 of the Third Age, so I think that Deagol found the Ring in the year 2502 of the Third Age (give or take about a year). That gives Gollum plenty of time to become corrupted.
When the quote says "ere the line of the kings failed" it doesn't mean exactly when the line failed. Earnur, the last King of Gondor before Aragorn II Elessar, had been lost in the year 2050, when he never returned from a challenge issued by the Witchking. "Ere" is probably being used as a term denoting general area of time. To translate that quote into more "modern" English would probably thus result in something like: "...about when the line of the kings failed," not "...exactly when..."
<font size=1 color=339966>[ 12:30 PM December 11, 2003: Message edited by: Finwe ]
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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