RTW was not historical. That's one of the reasons I found it disappointing.

I'm by no means an expert, but the way the egyptians were portrayed made me go 'wtf?' and so did the 'uber cool' kinds of units (screeching women, druids and assorted).

As to why history can be fun and entertaining, I point you to EB. I would have stopped playing RTW altogether after maybe 15 hours if it weren't for EB.