Great game, fantastic visuals
Graphics and special effects are simply stunning! I've never seen a more visually spectacular strategy game. Everything from water reflections to huge buildings getting smashed down looks awesome. But of course, if you like to have all the graphical settings maxed out, it requires a lot from your pc.
AoE 3 delivers great sound effects. The in-game music isn't anything extraordinary, but it's nice too. The sound, though, isn't perfect. Your soldiers and settlers repeat them self's a bit too often (as in most RTS's), when you give them new orders (why can't they just shut up!).
The game with it's 20-25 missions on moderate difficulty takes about 10-20 hours to complete. After that you might just go out roaming on the Internet with your buddies.
To sum up, I'd say that this game is highly recommended for earlier Age of Empires fans, as well as for new players of Age of Empires, most of you out there will enjoy it, if you're not searching for something to revolutionizing. When I played Age 3 it felt such nostalgic; it felt just as the good times, Age 2 times.
//Aleksis.