My family plays AoE 1: RoR every week, it's great fun and still very competitive after all these years.
It's still possible to play it online, it took me ages to find out how after zone closed, the program works really well if you get a good connection.
http://www.gameranger.com/ <-- try it and enjoy online AOE once again ;)
You can even use it to make AOE multiplayer work under vista which was a real nightmare before.
Playing : PC AOE, DiRT 2, Runes of Magic, Wings of Prey & Planetside 2
Wii U : Nintendoland, Super Mario U & Fifa 2013 demo
DS : Guitar Hero : On Tour
Formerly unknown as Vengi