Well, AoE Online launched today and I've been playing it a bit. It's a pretty interesting game, a lot like the others.
You have a Capital City, somewhat like the Home City in Age of Empires III, where you upgrade your troops, units and buildings with gear of different rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare). Every building and unit you want to use needs to be unlocked in your Capital City before using them in the the 'quests' which makes leveling slow business.
Sadly, villagers require resource drop off points again. I loved the Atlantians in Age of Mythology for not needing resource huts and I took for granted not having them in AoE III. Priests can convert troops to their side again though!
Quests are how you level up your Capital City in the game, earning you Tech points, to unlock new building and units. You also earn Empire Points, a currency to buy unique items, all of which require a premium account to use. Each quest is a different mission where you have to complete certain objectives to finish it and earn the rewards, kinda different from previous AoE games. Some are timed, but I've had no trouble completing them.
It's a F2P game through and through. Noobs are every where. They already have an in-game store backed full of stuff that totals to over 125 dollars. Premiums users get extreme boosts in combat and everything else, sadly.