You pretty much said it in the OP.

The 2nd one was one of the best games of all time.

After the second one there was seemingly no way to mostly keep things the same... so they had to try a wild departure... afterall this isn't like a FPS where you can just tweak stuff a bit and be fine and sell new copies.

To be fair, Rise of Nations did something similar and was released and published by Microsoft 2 years earlier. Both Ensemble and Microsoft probably had that in mind when developing AOEIII.

Considering that the market is returning to much more old school values you would think that consumers would be yearning for another AoE2 a la NSMB. A remake with updated graphics (I mean it honestly doesn't need them at all) would seel like hotcakes I think and cost what, like nothing!

If all the upcoming consoles go the Pad-Controller route then I think it would make RTS games like this popular again, except now for consoles. Pikmin is already going to be one of the showcase games for what RTS games can do, obviously Pikmin is a very accessible RTS.

Ahh the memories

Also didn't Age of Mythology give players 3 different gods for each of the 3 nations, in order to cause it so there would be like 9 different civs based on which god the players picked with each of the 3 base nations.  Ok, this might of gone up to 12 civs with the expansion.

It does have three different gods for each civilization, and each god comes with their own special powers, units, and upgrades. For each age, you also choose between two different minor gods, which offer different powers, units, and upgrades. So while you may not have a whole ton of choice when it comes to how the units look, there are tons of different ways to approach playing even the same civilization. 

well, that does seem pretty sweet! It's kinda like a RPG RTS?? but do you have to compete online? I'm not good at that stuff. I once tried to play starcraft online and was killed after like 5 minutes of play... I suck at multiplayer online.

Absolutely. I am sure we'll some day see at least a Kickstarter project trying to make a spiritual sequel to Age of Empires 1/2.

The question is who is going to make it. Hopefully Rick Goodman and Bruce Shelley get their masterminds together. That would become absolutely huge and immediately break a new record on Kickstarter.

You don't have to compete online.  Almost all of the quests you run into are playable by single-player.  However, some single-player quests are easier if you co-op with a friend. 

The revamped AI will force you to learn to be competitive online, you can use lazy strategies early on, but once you hit about level 20 you best step up your game or you're going to be served a can of whoop-ass.  It's not as bad as when they made the initial changes, but it's still more difficult than it was originally.  There were level 5/7 quests I would do just for something to XP up on, which were seriously good time-wasters.  Now, with a high level civ, and the changes, they are challenging if you don't act fast.

AOEO is not for the faint of heart.

Also, while you don't have to play online against other people, there are PVP matches that earn both XP and Gold (you need this), and you can also be a part of an alliance which will earn you gold and empire points (again you need these).

The civs available in AOEO are Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Celts, and Babylonians.

AOEO is free, with the booster packs and premium civs being available with the Empire Points.  Empire Points are earned in-game or can be purchased through Steam or Games for Windows Live. 

The more I hear of this game the more I wanna play it... I might even try to lure one of my bros into play with me!! But how different can the civs become? My favorite ancient civs are the Romans - but they're not playable... Can the Greek become something similar to the Romans (which actually be pretty cool if it was possible, and kind of realistic; the Romans "borrowed" quite a few things from the Greeks).