Tips for Optimizing your Age of Empires Experience

Before you begin playing your Age of Empires game, consider the following tips to ensure the best experience while playing:

🛠 Play on a Smaller Map with a Lower Population

The larger the map and higher the population, the more it will tax your computer and the computers of other players in your match. If you’re having performance problems, try creating a smaller map or maxing your population at 200 per team.

🛠 Close Any Background Applications

This will help mitigate any disruptions while you’re playing Age of Empires. You can see what applications are currently running by pressing ALT + SHIFT + Esc to open the Task Manager window.

🛠 Monitor your Network Usage

Make sure your internet is equipped to handle a multiplayer online experience. Your PC will be communicating with several others throughout the world, so ensure that you have your networking setup to maximize your access to the internet.

1. Limit the number of devices accessing the same network ports as Age of Empires.
2. Close other programs accessing the internet, including any web browsers, other game clients, etc.

To get the best experience playing Age of Empires, make sure you open or forward these ports on your firewall or network hardware:

• TCP Port 8888 and UDP Port 9999, as well as Port 3478 (UDP & TCP) and Port 5222 (UDP & TCP).

These steps will help you minimize your network lag and improve your multiplayer experience. There is also the option to “Host as Dedicated Server” in the in-game multiplayer options that will help minimize issues if you encounter them.

🛠 Choose the Optimal Display Resolution

Setting your display resolution higher than the recommended option may impact your game’s framerate. To change your computer’s resolution:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select Display Settings.
2. Select Advanced Display Settings.
3. Select Recommended.

🛠 Set your Game Speed

Each Age of Empires game lets you set the default speed of the game. Slower speeds offer a more casual approach to the battlefield, while faster speeds lead to shorter, more action-packed games. You can adjust this setting at any time when playing single-player, or at the start of a multiplayer match.

1. From the main menu, go to Options > Settings > Speed (far left).
2. Check the box next to the desired Speed option.

🛠 Set your Display Zoom Level

Most Age of Empires games feature a “Display Zoom” setting that zooms the camera out so players can see more of the playable environment. Note that lower zoom settings will allow you to see more of the battlefield, which will simultaneously increase the number of assets on screen at any given time. This can lead to performance problems, so adjust accordingly. 

To change this setting:

1. From the main menu, go to Options > Settings > Display Zoom.
2. Check the box next to the desired Display Zoom option.

🛠 If you have multiple graphics cards (GPU), make sure the game is set to use best or high performance.

If these steps do not work for you, consider adjusting your settings at the graphics-card level (exact steps for this will vary between graphics card models). This step especially applies if you are playing on a gaming laptop, which may come with multiple GPUs by default.

Steam:

• Open Steam and locate the game.
• Right-click on the game and select Manage > Browse Local Files.
• In the File Explorer that opens, highlight the file pathway and copy it (CTRL + C).
• Go to your Windows Start menu and search for Graphics Settings.
  • Windows 10 search for Display, scroll to the bottom of the window and click Graphics settings.
• Open Graphics Settings and click Browse.
• In the explorer window, paste (CTRL + V) the copied file pathway into the file pathway field.
• Select the game’s executable application.
• The application should now show in Graphics Settings page
• Click Options
• Change the graphics preference in the pop-up window to High Performance
• Click Save

Microsoft Store:

• Go to your Windows Start menu and search for Graphics Settings
  • Windows 10 search for Display, scroll to the bottom of the window and click Graphics settings.
• Open Graphics Settings
• Change the dropdown from Desktop App to Microsoft Store App
• Find the game
  • Windows 10 - A second dropdown will appear. Select the game title from that dropdown.
  • Windows 11 - Click Browse and select the game title from the list.
• Click Add and the game should now show in Graphics Settings page
• Click Options
• Change the graphics preference in the pop-up window to High Performance
• Click Save