User blog comment:TheDwellerCamp/Should I try out the 1st game?/@comment-27849239-20160511044107/@comment-26842175-20160511170929

thre are also a few other advantages the second version has. In the first game, villagers were quite vulnarable early on and you could not garrison them in your town center. The game also lacks gates, which makes walls less profitable. farms in the first one can not be reseeded and units can't walk over farms. The second one has also a better counter system.

Though I think the first one was a good game in the previous century, it think the second is much of an improvement, which also explains why there is still an decent number of active AoE 2 players.