I usually focus on one or two ages in particular What ever im in the mood for, and while the graphics are annoying, its still a good game. I would say its more wide open to, but I dont understand why thats a bad thing. Besides there are millions of pluses over games like AoK, the resource gathering system is much easier and more balanced. Which add a lot more to controlling territory, where as in AoE, by the time you go to stop the enemy from getting gold, the gold is gone. Lots of little things like, if you select four barracks, and build a unit, then ALL the barracks build the same unit, as opposed to going and clicking on each one separately. The 'teams' and 'grouping' is also easier. In many ways its better than AoK, just not as glossed over, and its presence is apparent in AoM, where many of the things I mentioned are included.
You build B-29's and the like to get Nukes.