Never played AoE 3, but back in the day I sure played a lot of 1 and 2! Heck, I used to be so engrossed in the gameplay that before you know it 7 and 8 hours would pass without me realizing that I totally wasted my day in a fantasy world. No kiddin'.
No I don't play long games anymore, a few years ago I started buying game consoles so that I could keep my computer free of games. So when I want to play I switch on the PS4 and play either GTA Online or World of Tanks (free) Although GTA can take many hours of fun, with the online version I play less than one hour at a time, and world of tanks even less, it's short gameplay and mindless.. So that when on my computer my only fun is to post on forums and whatnot, no gaming. But yes Ages of Empires version 1 for sure I played it, other games such as Simcity (old version) that was fun, but now my game is online money and my scores are earnings, trafic, conversions, etc.. It's fun too and an online persistent world you can come back time and time again every day
I think AOE 2 : The conqueros is more popular than AOE 3, I am a Fan AOE 2. Have you play it? Sometime we can play multiplayer on Voobly