Published by: Microsoft
Developed by: Ensemble Studios

The demo you've all been waiting for has finally arrived! Microsoft has improved upon the original Age of Empires and delivered one of the year's best strategy games. The basic details of the demo are listed below, and we've also posted the readme.rtf as a download in case you want to know everything possible about the demo before downloading.

Included in the demo:

The William Wallace Learning Campaign - Whether you are a master at Age of Empires and Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome or completely new to real-time strategy games, the William Wallace campaign will teach you the basics, plus you'll see what's new in Age of Empires II. To play the William Wallace campaign, click Learn to Play on the main menu.

A Sample Random Map Game - This is the heart of Age of Empires II and the variations are endless. You start in the Dark Ages with just a Town Center, three villagers and a Scout. Build your empire to eliminate your two computer-player opponents. To play, click Random Map on the Single Player menu.

Four-player multiplayer game - Using another sample Random Map, you can join your friends and battle your enemies on the MSN Gaming Zone. To play a multiplayer game, click Multiplayer on the main menu.

[NOTE: Unfortunately, our Age of Empires II contest has ended. But you can still get the demo via GIGEX DOWNLOAD.]

You can also download the demo from ZDNET LAUNCHPAD.

System Requirements: Pentium-166, 32 MB RAM, SVGA w/ 2MB, mouse, sound board, Windows 95; Windows 98; Windows NT
 
Required Utilities: DirectX 6.1

Download the Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings demo (aoe2demo.exe, 46.8M)  estimated time: 14.4Kbps - 9 hrs   28.8Kbps - 5 hrs   56Kbps - 136 mins

Download the Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings readme.rtf for the demo (readme_aoe2demo.rtf, 66K)  estimated time: 14.4Kbps - 45 secs   28.8Kbps - 22 secs   56Kbps - 11 secs