I bought myself a new Asus G513.
Specs
AMD 5900HX
16Gb ddr 3200
RTX 3060 (6Gb Vram)
Still, on 4k max settings I only seem to hit around max 30-35 FPS, when playing e.g the Caribbean map. Why is AoE 3 DE that demanding? I play modern 3D titles like Forza Horizon 5 and Hitman 3 with a higher fps than this.
4K is a lot and 3060 is a decent card, but not designed for 4K, more like a strong option for QHD. That doesn’t mean it can’t run 4K or there are not games played in it that run fine or good, but you shouldn’t expect everything to be like that.
It’s demanding because it looks good and it’s built upon a game that came out 16 years ago, where having more 1 CPU core was not a standard because such processors didn’t exist.
First Intel DualCore came out in 2005. AoE III was released in 2005 
Since the release of 3DE devs have smoothed a lot of rough edges and optimized it to work much more smoothly, but still it’s a game on an engine designed in a rather early era of 3D graphics.
Also- turn off extra zoom options if you don’t want to lower gfx settings/ resolution.
Haha I remember having the AMD X2 dual core. Then, 2 months later the first Core 2 Duo arrived. Man, I was annoyed. They were cheaper and faster😄
Still, old engine or not, if I can play the earlier mentioned games on 4k max settings with a higher FPS something is wrong. Let’s hope they will further optimise the graphics. DLSS or even FSR anyone?
Thanks for the tip in regards the zoom function. Turned it on. Zoomed out max seems however return the same fps as zoomed in. Maybe due to the higher detail zoomed in
Nothing is wrong- it is an old engine, simple as 
Being able to run Forza or whatever doesn’t matter here. They are different, modern games designed for modern PC architecture that can take advantage of all modern CPU and GPU technologies, capabilities of modern storage devices, and system memory.
DLSS or even FSR anyone?
I’m not sure if it’s possible ti implement it, but personally I wouldn’t hold my breath for it.
AoE III is made on ‘BANG! Engine’.
Tony Goodman : We began working on the 3D engine for RTSIII at the same time we started Age of Empires II.
Ensemble Studios interview - PC News at GameSpot (archive.org)
Who, that’s indeed an old engine.
I thought it was completely overhauled to support modern CPUs and GPU technologies. Good to know.