Out of the blue, this is getting an unofficial expansion, and the expansion will be free.

Looks pretty cool, I'd suggest checking it out if you've ever been an Age2 fan.

Here's the main site: http://www.forgottenempires.net/

I'm crossing my fingers that the AoE2 community will embrace it. Since it uses userpatch, the implication here is that you'll be able to do pretty much a fresh install of AoEII, the TC expansion, and then AoFE and it should work hassle-free on newer machines (we've come a long way since 2000 -_-). It will also be playable on resolutions without using a work-around such as a bat file.

Anyhoo, I suggest checking it out. Occasionally I still see a gold edition for sell at walmart or such. The current multiplayer places are gameranger and voobly.