I believe that numbers of people on battle.net for starcraft is less then for warcraft III by a substantial margin. However, I dont know about Iccup players. Warcraft III on Iccup has yet to take off, but starcraft is thriving over there, this is partly due to warcraft being new to the site, and having better Battle.net support. But over all, battle.net + iccup, I'm not certian what game has more players. Both have healthy communities and strong professional gaming communities tho.
The AoE series is a different animal. The reason for much of Blizzards success is the incredible balance in Starcraft and Warcraft III. AoE has never achieved that. That balance is why starcraft and warcraft III are so great. Personally, I play AOE III, Starcraft, and warcraft III, and I enjoy all of them immensly. The lure of the AoE series is the incredible diversity of "civilizations" especially in AoE III.
