Microsoft Age of Empires III

Readme File
September 2005

Welcome to Microsoft® Age of Empires® III!

This file contains information to help you install Age of Empires III. It also includes late-breaking
information not included in the manual or in-game Help.

CONTENTS
A. Installing Age of Empires III
B. Starting Age of Empires III
C. Getting Help
D. What's on the Disc?
E. Multiplayer Guide
F. Shortcut Keys
G. Manual Corrections
H. Gameplay Troubleshooting
I. DirectX Troubleshooting
J. Video Troubleshooting
K. CD-ROM Drive Troubleshooting
L. Audio Troubleshooting
M. Processor Troubleshooting
N. Performance Troubleshooting
O. Multiplayer Troubleshooting
P. Age of Empires III Information

A. Installing Age of Empires III

To install Age of Empires III, you must have administrator rights on your computer and your
computer must be running Microsoft Windows® XP.

To install Age of Empires III

• Insert the Age of Empires III disc into the disc drive. If AutoPlay is enabled, the
installation menu will appear; click Install, and then follow the on-screen prompts.
—or—
• If AutoPlay is disabled, on the Start menu, click My Computer. In the My Computer
window, double-click the disc drive icon, and then double-click Setup.exe. On the Setup
screen, click Install, and then follow the on-screen prompts.

B. Starting Age of Empires III

You must have the Age of Empires III disc 1 in your disc drive to play.

To start Age of Empires III

• Insert the Age of Empires III disc 1 into the disc drive. On the Start menu, point to
Programs, point to Microsoft Games, point to Age of Empires III, and then click Age of
Empires III.

You can skip the opening cinematics by pressing ENTER, SPACEBAR, or ESC.
C. Getting Help
You can find information about Age of Empires III in the game manual, the in-game Help, and in
PDF files.

To display in-game Help

• Place your pointer over any button or interface item in the game to view rollover Help or
tooltips. You can also right-click any unit portrait or improvement icon in the game to view
detailed Help.

PDF files of the game manual and civilization quick reference card reside in the Docs folder on
the Age of Empires III CD. To view the PDF files, you must have Adobe® Reader® installed. You
can download Adobe Reader at <http:www.adobe.com>.

D. What's on the Disc?

The Age of Empires III disc contains some additional information that you may find interesting or
useful.

To access the information on the game disc

• On the Start menu, click My Computer. In the My Computer window, double-click the
disc drive icon, and then double-click the Docs folder.

E. Multiplayer Guide
You can play a specific or random map, with a specified or random civilization, with up to seven
other players. The other players can be human connections from the Internet or LAN, computer
players, or a combination of both.

To play a multiplayer game

• On the Main menu, click Multiplayer, and then choose ESO or LAN.

ES Online—Selecting this option connects you to Ensemble Studios Online (ESO)

through the game’s built-in browser. An Internet connection is required prior to game
launch to connect to ESO. ESO is a quick and easy way to find other Age of Empires III
players.

LAN—You can set up a LAN two ways:

TCP/IP Connection for Direct IP or LAN Connect using your broadband Internet
connection or a network that uses the TCP/IP protocol. If you do not know which protocol
your network uses, contact your network administrator.
—or—
Modem Connection for Direct IP Modem connection is supported to the Internet or a
private network. Age of Empires III requires a modem speed of 56 KBps or faster.
Players behind a NAT, router or ICS may encounter problems with Direct IP and should
play instead on ESO.

To join or host an ESO (Ensemble Studios Online) game

On the Main menu, choose Multiplayer, and then choose ES Online. The ESO Login Screen
will appear. Enter your nickname and your password. Click OK.

If this is your first time, click the New Account button. The Create a New Account dialog box will
appear. Enter the following information, and then click OK:
• Nickname
• Password (you must confirm it)
• Secret question
• Secret answer (so we can confirm your identity if necessary)
• E-mail address

Click Game Browser to join an existing game or host a game.

• To join one of the games listed in the game browser, select the game you want to join
and click the Join button.
—or—
• To host a game, click the Host button, identify the game type, Home City levels required,
and your password, and then click OK. Your hosted game will be listed in the Game
Browser for others to join, up to seven other players can participate in your game.

To join or host a LAN/Direct IP multiplayer game

On the Main menu, choose Multiplayer, and then choose LAN. A dialog box appears asking you
to enter a single-player skirmish nickname for this session. Type your nickname, and click OK.

You’ll need to choose or create a Home City for the session. If you haven’t created one already,
the Create Your Home City dialog box will appear. Enter the information necessary to create
your Home City.

Before you start your session, you can update your Home City’s Cards and Deck from the Home
Cities screen. When you finish and are ready to start, click the Play button.

The LAN / Direct IP dialog box now appears. The dialog box lists games in progress on your
LAN. You can join a game already in progress, or host a game yourself. If you want to connect to
another computer directly via Internet Protocol (IP), in the Direct IP: field type the IP address of
that computer and click Connect.

ESO (Ensemble Studios Online) Features

The ESO Home screen provides a variety of options that let you host games, join games,
configure Home Cities, chat with other players, and participate in ladders and clans. You can
create and manage different Home Cities that persist across multiple online game sessions, as
well as choose new Cards and build multiple Decks to experiment with different in-game
strategies. You can also identify friends to play against and chat with as well as block those you
do not want to associate with online.

Experience points earned while playing qualified ESO multiplayer games will apply toward
persistent Home Cities levels. In other words, you can increase the level of your Home City as
long as you meet the conditions in the first paragraph below. Rated games, however, must meet
the criteria in both paragraphs below. Rated games statistics will be used for ladder rankings.

Experience Points (XP) and Rated games must meet the following conditions:
1. At least two human players are in the game
2. The game must be played for more than two minutes to get XP
3. The game must be played for more than five minutes to get Awards XP (rewarded at the
conclusion of the game)
4. Handicap must be turned off
5. Cheats are not enabled

In addition, a Rated game must also follow these requirements:

1. The game must be played on ESO
2. The map has to be an Ensemble generated map (user created maps do not qualify)
3. There must be two teams with equal numbers of players on each (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4)
4. No AI (computer) players in the game
5. Default for the following options
• Starting age must be Discovery Age
• Game speed is set to Medium
• Free For All is not enabled
In any one game, the maximum number of Experience Points earned by one player will not
exceed 30,000. Also, the Rated or Not Rated notification will be displayed at the top of the game
setup screen depending on the options selected. However, this notification is not shown on the
post game screen.

Multiplayer Settings

The Game Options dialog box lets you configure various Age of Empires III settings, affecting its
user interface, audio, and graphics performance. The Multiplayer tab on the Game Options
dialog box includes a profanity filter, which you can apply to filter profanity from any in-game chat
messages received during multiplayer sessions.

F. Shortcut Keys
The following keys can be very helpful during gameplay.

HOTKEYS
SPACEBAR – Center View on Selected Unit
ALT – Display Details on Selected Unit
H – Toggle Home City Screen
/ – Cycle Explorers
' – Cycle Ships
. – Cycle Idle Villagers
, – Cycle Idle Military Units
; – Cycle Wagons (Covered Wagon, Fort Wagon, Outpost Wagon, or Factory Wagon)

FIND
T – Town Center
CTRL+A – Artillery Foundry
CTRL+B – Barracks or Blockhouse
CTRL+C – Church
CTRL+D – Dock
CTRL+E – House or Manor House
CTRL+F – Fort
CTRL+I – Mill
 CTRL+K – Bank
CTRL+L – Plantation
CTRL+M – Market
CTRL+O – Outpost
CTRL+P – Trading Post
CTRL+Q – Field Hospital
CTRL+R – Arsenal
CTRL+S – Stable
CTRL+V – Livestock Pen
CTRL+W – Wall
CTRL+Y – Factory
CTRL+Z – Capitol

Use the following shortcuts to create new buildings when a villager is selected. For
example, to create a Dock, select a villager, and then press the D key.

VILLAGER BUILDS

A – Artillery Foundry
B – Barracks or Blockhouse
C – Church
D – Dock
E – Town Center (this is for the Explorer only)
E – House or Manor House
F – Fort
I – Mill
K – Bank
L – Plantation
M – Market
O – Outpost
P – Trading Post
Q – Field Hospital
R – Arsenal
S – Stable
W – Wall
V – Livestock Pen

G. Manual Corrections
In Getting Started, under the section “Winning a Game,” the manual states that “Supremacy
offers a way to win without combat—Four of a Kind. You get Four of a Kind by building four
Trading Posts either along a Trade Route or at Native American settlements.” The Four of a
Kind feature no longer exists.

The Mini Map no longer includes a "Find Explorer" button. You can still locate your Explorer(s) by
pressing the slash ( / ) key.

The Mini Map now includes a "Player Summary" button, which lets you tribute allies or view
information about your Home City.

The Resource panel no longer displays the current villager count.

Two labels on the In-Game menu have changed. Their functionality hasn't changed. The new
labels are:
• Load (was Saved Game)
• Options (was Player Options)
• ES Online (was ESO)

H. Gameplay Troubleshooting
• Minimized User Interface – To increase the amount of screen display available for
gameplay, you can reduce the size of the Resource Panel, Mini Map, and Command Panel
before starting your session. Choose Help and Tools from the Main Menu and then select
Options. Choose the UI Options tab and turn on Enable Minimized UI. Some users may
notice a decrease in performance when playing with this minimized UI.

• Crashes and scenarios not working/completing correctly – These issues have occurred
on systems using Sound Blaster cards and may be resolved by disabling hardware sound
acceleration. Consult your card manufacturer's guide to disable this feature.

• Key Scrolling – Users that use the arrow keys to scroll/move the main game screen may
periodically experience the screen scrolling in one direction when the keys are no longer
pressed. Simply tap the key that corresponds to the direction it is moving to stop the screen.

• Console Commands – This developer feature is not supported and may cause crashes,
user-interface issues and other problems. Closing the application and restarting it will resolve
these problems.

I. DirectX Troubleshooting
DirectX® 9c or later must be installed on your computer before you can play Age of Empires III. If
you do not have DirectX 9c installed on your computer and you chose not to install DirectX 9c
when you installed Age of Empires III, you will not be able to play Age of Empires III. Install
DirectX 9c by reinstalling Age of Empires III, or download the software from Microsoft Windows
Update at: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

If Age of Empires III installed DirectX 9c but could not update your video drivers to be compatible
with DirectX 9c, when you restart your computer you will receive the message: Age of Empires III
could not initialize DirectX. Make sure that DirectX 9c or higher is installed and contact your
hardware manufacturer for a video driver update. To fix this, you can download updated video
drivers from the Microsoft Windows Update site (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) or from the
video adapter manufacturer’s site, or install DirectX in safe mode, which replaces the video
drivers.

If you continue to experience sound or video problems using DirectX, go to

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/ for the latest DirectX information. You should also
check with your video or sound card manufacturer for the latest DirectX-compatible drivers.

J. Video Troubleshooting
Latest Drivers—Ensure that you have the latest drivers from your video card manufacturer, or
check the Windows Update site (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) for the latest drivers. Users
of motherboards with non-Intel chipsets should upgrade to the latest miniport drivers available
from their motherboard manufacturer.

Age of Empires III does not support the following video cards:

3D Labs Permedia 1

3DFX – All versions

ATI ES1000
Rage (all)
Radeon
Radeon 7000
Radeon 7000 IGP
Radeon 7200 (32 MB only)
Radeon 7500 (32 MB only)
Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP
Mobility Fire GL

Cirrus Logic - all versions

Matrox G100
Matrox G200
Matrox Millennium
Matrox Millennium II
Matrox Mystique

Geforce 2 (32 MB only)

Geforce
TnT2
TnT
nVidia Riva 128
nVidia Rica 128 zx

S3 Virge_VX
S3 Virge_MX/MV
S3 Virge_MX+
S3 Virge_MX
S3 Virge_GX2
S3 Virge_DX/GX
S3 Trio64V2_DX/GX
S3 Trio64UV+
S3 Aurora64V+
S3 Aurora128
S3 Savage 2000

Intel 945
Intel 915
Intel 810 / 815
Intel 845
Intel 850
Intel 865
Intel i740
 Vanta

Rendition - all versions

Number9 - All versions
Oak Technologies - all versions
Chromatic Research - all versions
Tseng Labs - all versions
Neo-magic - all versions

ATI
Some ATI video cards may experience difficulties with repeated toggling between the game
and another application using ALT+TAB. It is recommended that you do not use this key
combination.

NVidia
If you are using the NVidia 6800 - Driver: 6.14.0010.7189 (April 14, 2005), terrain objects,
particularly trees, will have an artificial appearance when the Shader Quality setting is set to
low and the graphic Bit Depth is set to 16. It is recommended that you update to the latest
version of these drivers to fix this problem.

If you are noticing flashing, popping,or pausing on an overclocked NVidia 6800, please be
aware that this is a known issue with no work around.

Matrox
A Matrox Parhelia 128MB or a Matrox Millennium P750 using driver 6.13.0001.1691,
reference drivers 6.13.0001.1873, and 6.13.0001.1914 may not correctly show bump
mapping which appears as snow or solid grey textures in the game world. It is recommended
that you update to the latest version of these drivers to fix this problem.

DirectX
If you experience video problems using DirectX, go to the DirectX Web site for the latest
troubleshooting information at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/.

K. CD-ROM Drive Troubleshooting

Age of Empires III uses SSI encryption technology and some CD-ROM drives may not be
compatible with this technology.

L. Audio Troubleshooting
If you do not have sound drivers or a sound card installed on your computer, you should use the
no-sound shortcut that is available on the Start menu. To apply this shortcut, select Start, point to
All Programs, point to Microsoft Games, point to Age of Empires III, point to Diagnostics and
then click Age of Empires III no sound.

• Sound Blaster issues – Crashes and scenarios not working/completing correctly have
occurred on systems with Sound Blaster sound cards and may be resolved by disabling
hardware sound acceleration. Consult your card manufacturer's guide to disable this feature.

• DirectX – If you experience audio problems using DirectX, go to the DirectX Web site for the
latest troubleshooting information. Also if this occurs, ensure that you have the latest drivers
from your sound card manufacturer, or visit the Windows Update site
(http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com) to download the latest drivers.
M. Processor Troubleshooting

Age of Empires III requires processors with the SSE instruction set. Setup will fail to install to
machines that do not meet this minimum requirement. Please note that the 1.4 GHz Athlon
Thunderbird does not have SSE.

N. Performance Troubleshooting
There are several ways to improve the game's performance. For example, the game will run
faster if you use the least demanding game settings. These include:

• Setting the screen resolution to 800 x 600.

• Setting the detail of graphics to Low.
• Turning off shadows completely
• Turning music off.

Most of these improvements can be made from within the game by going to the Main menu,
clicking Help and Tools and then choosing Options, or, if you are playing a game, click the
Menu button, and then click Options.

A hardware solution to increasing performance is to increase the amount of RAM in your

computer or to replace your video card. If you have less than one gigabyte (1 GB), you should
upgrade the amount of memory in your system. If you have 1GB (or more) of memory, you
should consider upgrading your video card.

We also recommend that you:

• Shut down as many other applications running on your system as possible in order to free
memory and processing.
• Defragment your hard drive.
• Activate DMA (on appropriate hard drives).
• Reboot your system before starting Age of Empires III.
• Turn your virus scanner settings down while playing Age of Empires III.

Also, ensure that you have the latest drivers from your video and sound card manufacturer or
check the Windows Update site (<http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com>) for the latest drivers.
Users of motherboards with non-Intel chipsets should upgrade to the latest miniport drivers
available from their motherboard manufacturer.

If you are using the My Documents Redirection feature of Microsoft Windows 2000 and
Windows XP (also known as IntelliMirror®) then when you go to load games the games appears
to freeze for 5 - 10 minutes before starting the load process. Age of Empires III does not support
the use of this feature. For better game performance, it is advised that you turn this feature off.

O. Multiplayer Troubleshooting
Performance—The following guidelines are recommended for a good multiplayer experience:

• 8 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN

• 6 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN
• 4 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 2.2 GHz, 512 MB RAM, and Cable/DSL, LAN
• 2 Players - Greater or equal to a P4 1.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM minimum (512 MB RAM
recommended), and 56 KBps modem
 For more information on how to improve your Age of Empires 3 experience, visit
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=52125

Home networks and dial-up connections—If you have a network card and you dial in to the
Internet via modem, you may have trouble launching multiplayer games. If this occurs, disable the
device that is not your Internet connection and try again.

Multiplayer Scenarios—Age of Empires III does not support the use of triggers for user-created
scenarios in multiplayer. Triggers may cause “out-of-syncs” errors or other unknown problems.
Exiting the game and restarting Age of Empires III will fix any instability caused by this situation.

Direct IP—In order to play a DirectIP game, you must have a direct connection to the Internet. In
other words, your machine must have a REAL IP address assigned to it. We have found
problems where a DMZ may assign a fake NAT address that hinders or blocks connectivity for
Direct IP. This is not usually required if you are playing on ESO. If you are uncertain about
making these changes, check with your network administrator.

Multiple IP addresses—If other players are not able to connect to a game you have created by
typing the IP address that appears when you click the IP button on the Multiplayer Game screen,
you may have multiple IP addresses. You can display all of your IP addresses by running Ipconfig
(WinXP). If you are uncertain about making these changes, check with your network
administrator.

To run ipconfig

• On the Start menu, click Run.

• Type cmd, and then click OK.
• At the command prompt, type ipconfig, and then press ENTER. The correct IP address will be
displayed.

Disconnection from ISP—If you are disconnected from your ISP and quickly reconnect, you and
the host may be dropped from the game if your ISP assigns a new IP address because the game
will not recognize you. If this occurs, restart the game.

Hard disk space—If you join a multiplayer game but do not have enough hard disk space to
download the scenario, you will receive a message that you must quit the game, clear space on
your hard disk, and then rejoin the game.

External Applications—Some applications like virus scanners and some firewalls may have
conflicts or warnings when running or updating Age of Empires III. Oftentimes these warnings or
dialog boxes pop up behind Age of Empires III and appear to be locked. You can press ALT+TAB
to switch out of Age of Empires III to close the warning, and then press ALT+TAB again to return
to the game and continue playing. You can also disable these programs before running Age of
Empires III, or you can select Windowed Mode from the Options menu if you have problems
using ALT+TAB.

Two TCP/IP devices—If you are experiencing issues with dropping network connections or a
lack of ability to connect to other games, please attempt the following:

• Exit Age of Empires III and ensure that you have a network / Internet connection.
• Disable the device that is not your Internet connection and try again.

ICS is not officially supported. For information on setting up your ICS or disabling your second
TCP/IP device, please see http://support.microsoft.com/ and search the Knowledge Base for
instructions specific to your operating system. If you are uncertain about making these changes,
contact your network administrator.

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), Network Address Translation (NAT) clients or Firewalls
—Although Age of Empires III does not officially support connection through ICS or NAT,
Ensemble Studios Online tries to auto-detect your network setup and configure itself for play on
your network. This should work for the majority of NAT devices, but if you are having problems
connecting to ESO or other players, you can try opening UDP port 2300, HTTP port (TCP: 80),
TCP ports 28800-28805 to ensure that you have loaded inbound/outbound TCP/IP and UDP
protocols in your network settings. If you have multiple machines, you may also map those
machines by incrementing that port number by one and using hostPort=2301 (for instance) on the
Age of Empires III command line.

Proxy—Some ISPs automatically force the use of a Proxy which may cause Age of Empires III to
lock up when connecting to ESO. Configuring your Internet settings for a dedicated proxy server
may fix this problem. If you are uncertain about making these changes, check with your network
administrator.

Router—Ensure you have the latest firmware updates. This may allow users to host without
enabling DMZ. Also, some routers may have problems connecting and hosting games on ESO
when UPnP is on, but will work fine when it is disabled. If you are uncertain about making these
changes, check with your network administrator.

Setting up or Disabling Internet Connection Sharing—For more information on setting up or

disabling an Internet connection sharing using Windows XP, go to:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306126

P. Age of Empires III Information

• For more information about Age of Empires III, visit our Web site at:
http://www.ageofempires3.com/.

© & p 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Age of Empires, DirectX, Ensemble Studios, the Microsoft Game Studios logo, The Age of Kings, and Windows
are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.