In Age of Empires II : Age of Kings (AOK as it is commonly called) you take control of one of thirteen civilizations, including the Chinese, Goths, Britons, and Vikings, amoung others. You start with a handful of villagers and, through expansion and careful handling of your economy, you can advance up to the point where powerful war machines and well trained masses of troops will be at yours to make and control.

There are three distinct ways to play, one of which the object is to hunt and kill the other player(s) king, however there are a lot of options for each, anywhere from what type of map to start on (including coastal, gold rush, arabia, and rivers) to what the maximum amount of units are allowed.

You can also play online at the Zone vs up to seven other players, or via a TCP/IP connection.