I have old windows CD with Product Code (AEIII); is it possible for me to access the online version? Played the game awhile and enjoyed but stopped. New desktop doesn’t have CD drive.
The old aoe3 is dead. They removed the online servers for it.
Go to steam, and search for age of empires 3, and you will find the new game!
AoE3:DE might be the way to go, like DrMaxy4142 says. You’d have to buy it outright, though. (We have to pay for each new iteration of AoE that comes out. Some have proabably bought AoE2 4 or 5 times now over the years: AoE2 CD (original version), AoE2 FE, AoE2 HD, AoE2 DE.)
I’ve heard AoE3:DE some cool new updates, so it may be worth your while.
But if you really wanted to play that old CD version, you can maybe buy an external CD/DVD drive to install/play it?
I’d check with Microsoft first, though, or do some internet research, to see if you’ll be able to activate the game still, and/or patch it with whatever patches might be needed for modern PCs. I’m not sure how that works or if they’ve made it hard or impossible to activate and play the CD version
With the CD version, if you get the game functional, it seems that LAN multiplayer games would still work. And maybe Direct IP? (I’m not sure). Here was a thread regarding the old game going away on Steam where some of this stuff was discussed: