The last AOE I've played was II. Rise of Nations is much faster, gives you more time to worry about battling and now micro managing.
In AOE resources deplenish... Rise of Nations have boarders...Rise of nations has bigger armies since resources are abundant. More strategy in RON...
When I first played it I said...AOE...but after a while I started seeing the difference, have stopped playing since..that was two years ago.
I only played AOE3 demo...very good graphs that's for sure...better than RON overall...not.