Start with villagers, some resources, a town center and build up you little outpost into a great center of trade, diplomacy, and a place where enemies, who want what you have, are going to destroy you!  this is what Age of Empires 2 is all about.  you start from scratch, with just some mere villagers.  you gather up resources to build an army to conqueror and defend.  its really like all real-time strategy games.  however, unlike some of its counter-parts (ahem... cough starcraft  warcraft cough)  it has a lot of the same buildings and lots of the same core units.  in warcraft and starcraft, every race has different resources gatherers whereas in Age of empires2, you always have the same villager.  in AOE2, the only differences between races would be unique units, and unit/tech trees.  each race has their own econonic boosts and disadvantages.  the unit/tech tree that i am talking about is that each race can make a certain unit and research a certain technology that another race cannot.  for example:  the chinese can build bombard towers, but the celts cannot.  the chinese can build Camels, while the celts cannot.  however, celts can research much stronger infantry technology, including weapons and armor advancements, while the chinese cannot.  overall, you will have lots of fun playing this game no matter if you have played both starcraft and warcraft previously.