I believe that if ES doesnt want their asses handed back to them in a plate when starcraft 2 comes out, they must start to get good at what blizzard has always been good about. Im talking gameplay, battle.net, levels, tourneys, zerglings!!! Age of Empires will never be as big competetivly if they cant match up in gameplay, they will just stay a game for people who like history and strategy games, the REAL strategists will move on to SC2. Imagine playing game as fun to play as starcraft yet not aliens or zealots, but cannons, cavalry 17th century tactics, revisiting the greatest military feats in history or writing new ones, all of this going as smoothly and action packed, as a blood bath PvZ.
Im not saying it will be easy, but if you can pull it off, i wont even notice when SC2 comes out, who wants to play with aliens when you can have galleons? There is a almost impossible balance to strike between historical (and physical) realism -vs- gameplay but if you can hit it, well, DAMN!!!
Dont get me wrong, im as a big history nerd as you guys, but i prefer no history at all rather than a half-good history game.