III is really different to II, I love the new features such as the trading posts, but I still favor II because of the classic gameplay and the fact I have never got bored after years of playing.
i have literaly just brought this game off amazon, hope its good, ill post again once i recive it and have played it a bit.
i used to play AOE II - twas one of my favourite games. I havent played any computer games for a while....maybe I will reinstall a few. HOWEVER: I didnt like the Age of Mythology games, which were a bit of a spin off i thought.