For my end, I have played the other RTS you mentioned and for me Age of Empires wins hands down, just my absolute favourite RTS series.
Obviously they're probably gonna be a little dated now, but they still have great playability if you ask me, particularly 2 which was recently re-released on Steam, check it out on there I would.
I haven't had a rig capable of running much more than daily internet use for so long now, principally because I'm primarily on the consoles and don't bother with PC, the last time I had a set up that allowed me to though I was still playing AoE2 and AoE3 weekly, and that was only a couple of years ago, now I know they're all getting remastered releases and there's an AoE4 on the way though I'm considering dropping my plan to save and just go out and buy a decent set up to play them all on 
Hope you enjoy them man
Playstation gaming for 18 years this 2012 
