Awesome
I bought this game for my husband who loves strategical games. He loves it and plays it all the time. The graphics are spectacular.

My kid loves it
As a kid I was more into the shoot-em up type of games but my kid is just a notch above me intellectually. And he really loves the game. While it is true that it can slow your computer dramatically, my advice is to buy memory. We pumped the system to 1.5GB and the game seems to buffer the data quite well diminishing the disk access delays. Now we run full graphics with good performance.
And I should add we scratched the CD and Microsoft had a very good customer service.
I'd call AoE III a fun & safe choice.

Slow and steady
The game is a great amount of fun, however the advanced graphics run very slow on systems meeting the minimum requirements. Expect to upgrade if your comp just meets the minimum requirements

Age of Empires III
This is a real good game. The first 5 or 6 campaigns keep you thinking and mastering your skills. Then it gets real hard. I have been stuck on one campaign for weeks and can't seem to win. Even bought the book "Age of Empires III Great Strategies and Secrets and still can't win.

Great Game
This is a great game but not for the novice. I strongly recommend buying the book age of empires Official Strategies and secrets. It helps you understand the game. Amazon shipped the product quickly. Love Amazon.com