it depends wich civ are you playing... But, don't matter what, you should send food or gold crates shipments in the Colonial Age, so you can Age up before 8 min.
You can have some settlers in wood wHILE you are aging up
ESO - Walker
>> Napoleonic Era --> Visit their Homepage!
"Holy *****" > Thunder (Ensemble Studios)
Retired from AoE3. But I do play AoK HD in Steam now and then.