When I worked a temporary job for Lime Scooters here in New Zealand a few years ago, I set up an old 1990s stereo in the warehouse so I could listen to music on Tidal, via my phone and an AUX cable. This was late 2022 before I played AoE on Xbox. I listened to Definitive Edition but besides the main theme I didn’t recognise anything, because the soundtrack was basically 100% new. Maybe it has some influence from older sound tracks but I didn’t recognise it.
I didn’t enjoy it at first, but when I got Return Of Rome a few months ago I became fully obsessed with the definitive edition soundtrack. Especially the tracks: cradle of civilisation, temple bells, and mountain temple. I think that Mountain Temple sounds like a track from Runescape - let me know if you think so too! Especially the 1:20 and 1:30 part. Sounds totally like it came from Runescape lol
Age Of Empires II has a really nice and timeless soundtrack, whereas everything else these days has to be gangsta rap (even 007) or it has to be rock music, or try too hard to be heavy, like every movie sound track. It’s much better to let the instruments play, without forcing a sound of dread or suspense. I prefer Frank Klepacki’s Dune II soundtrack from 1992 to the modern film’s music. The old Dune II game’s soundtrack and the AoE II soundtrack are good for similar reasons.