Running Age of Empires 3 on windows 2k

[KHL]

For anyone who has run into the latest micro$haft scam whereby they won't allow you to install Age of Empires 3 on a non XP MAchine .

I'm here to say that it CAN run on windows 2000 just fine.

In order to get around the lame install, simply run the setup program with a /a flag i.e. "e:\setup /a". This will then prompt you to specify a location for the "network isntall". Simpy specify a location on your C: drive. After its all done, you can run the game as normal.

I thought I'd share this little tip

[Equinox2003]

Thank You. I was going to buy this game tomorrow, and would have run into that.
How is the game? Awesome I hope.

[Uraniun235]

The $ is for ca$h because they like making money, am i rite?

Hey maybe I should spell my last name Chri$ty because I like money too.

[Datana]

It says right on the damned box that it's for Windows XP. Not 2000/XP (as most recent games do), not 98/2000/XP, but XP. Do people never read system requirements anymore?

Anyway, some people have reported success under 2000 anyway by making an administrative installation (add "/a" to the installer's executable at the commandline, so "D:\setup.exe /a" if your drive's D: ). There's some DirectX voodoo that doesn't carry over on some hardware configs, though, so it's not guaranteed.

[Seggybop]

I don't know about 2000, but I can report that it installs on 2003 with no complaints.

[KHL]

It says right on the damned box that it's for Windows XP. Not 2000/XP (as most recent games do), not 98/2000/XP, but XP. Do people never read system requirements anymore?

Anyway, some people have reported success under 2000 anyway by making an administrative installation (add "/a" to the installer's executable at the commandline, so "D:\setup.exe /a" if your drive's D: ). There's some DirectX voodoo that doesn't carry over on some hardware configs, though, so it's not guaranteed.

I can understand perfectly if they don't want to support an installation on Windows 2000. My problem is that it won't even allow you you to try and install it on Windows 2000. That would also be fine if it didn't work at all on 2000 but it DOES. Other games out there such as Battlefield 2 say they are for Windows XP also, meaning they don't support W2K installs but at least they let you install it. I'm convinced it is just a ploy by M$ to milk as much out of XP before Vista comes out as possible. Yes I know their business is to make money, but attempting to bilk customers who purchased their 2000 OS by saying that they have to make an uneccessary upgrade to play their game isn't an ethical business practice

Granted I haven't finished the game yet, so maybe it will bomb out down the road, but I seriously doubt it...

Windows XP is essentially the Windows Millenium to 2000's windows 98. It has a little more glitz and a few more features, but at its core its essentially the same OS (as is evidenced by the fact that they use the same file system, hardware drivers etc.)

[phongn]

Windows XP is essentially the Windows Millenium to 2000's windows 98. It has a little more glitz and a few more features, but at its core its essentially the same OS (as is evidenced by the fact that they use the same file system, hardware drivers etc.)

WXP does, in fact, have numerous nontrivial changes to W2K. However, I don't think any of them really apply to gaming - Microsoft may simply not have wanted to QA the game on W2K.

[Xon]

WinXp has a completely different DirectX media layer, which isnt remotely supported on Win2k. This is why all the comercial home video software will only run on XP.

There are a large number of bug fixes and improvements too.

Non directly related to gaming, but the backwards compadibility layer is much better at handling certain classes of older games.