Rise of Rome is a better game than the first Age of Empires, sadly it carries alot of the same flaws as the first.
In Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome you play as the Roman civilization through 3 different campaigns, as you try to expand your empire (first campaign), build and defend it (campaign 2), and keep your rulership (campaign 3).
Rise of Rome features many new things compared to the first Age of Empires for example it has 5 new military units, 4 new civilizations, and my personal favorite the unit queue, along with many other new additions. The 5 new military units -for the main part- were put in to even out the combat making things a bit easier, but only a bit, a almost unrecognizable bit. Probably the most handy new addition -to me- was the unit queue, which allows for you to be able create more units at one time, rather than creating one then having to go back and make another which is an easily forgettable task.
The soundtrack to The Rise of Rome is mainly as annoying as the first; again you hear the same 2 (or 3, I can't remember) tracks, repeated over and over again, which can really take away from the game. The graphics for The Rise of Rome were at the time good, but are easily dated by today's standards, but to tell the truth graphics never really make an appearance in my views on games. The main problem I had with The Rise of Rome was the same with the first and that was just how stupid your people are, once again you see them getting lost half the time when you try to tell them to go somewhere else, which is one of the most annoying things in the whole game, and it really detracts from the experience of playing the game, and it also makes for an even more difficult game.
Overall though, Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome is a better game than the original Age of Empires, because of the new additions in the expansion, but it is stilled bogged down by some of the same problems from the first, I would recommend this game to any fan of the Age of Empires series, or any hardcore RTS gamer, otherwise I wouldn't tell you to play it.