I've never played an AoE game, and the only Civ game I've ever played was Civ2. I've played alot of other RTS's such as C&C, Warcraft1/2/3, Stronghold, overall I found them limited and boring. C&C games were sort of mission based and had some objective, so they weren't too bad, though they've never held my interest. WC was clickfest cartoonish stupidity from start to finish, no strategy or tactics, just turn out units faster than the AI, and attack using the same formula. Certain units would get obolete quickly and it was pointless training them. The newer releases may be better, I'm not going to bother to find out. Civ2 was quite refreshing at first, but after clicking "ok" thousands of times and ordering 100's of buildings to be constructed while waging war against the "Persians" and their billions of subs in the 1930's it became a tedious chore that virtually enslaved you to the PC.

You're better off with a Total War game by a long shot. Real strategy, units that have different purposes that don't become obsolete so easily. Real strategy, tactics that are worthwhile, no cheesey fastclicking rubbish. If your spec can handle it and eye candy graphics are important to you, then I would advise you to go with M2TW and bypass RTW. If eye candy is still a factor then RTW with mods may be the answer. If like me and graphics are not all important, and your PC is not exactly the latest and greatest then MTW may be worthwhile.