Is it possible for the older civs, which IIRC have a much lower werker speed than the new ones to have thier worker speed increased to match the later civs, when the new civs spawn?

I think that this is a huge and unfair dissadvantage to older civs and new civs already have enough going in thier favor

And the population of new founded cities should depend on era, not on civ.

Agreed :)

An arguement once could be made that older civs had more time to build workers. Of course with plague, many of those workers die foul deaths (with large black exploding boils on their bodies....or some such).

I agree that if there is a way to speed up worker speeds for the ancient civs, that would level the playing field.

Speed up workers as the game goes on, definately. However, I don't think the old civs need to become better at founding cities.

I agree that worker speed and city founding sizes should depend on era.

i did find it annoying that China took 4(!) turns to build a road.