Well, with development for it originally starting as a remake of AoE:TRoR, it'd probably be rather hard to get closer to AoE. And it is free, so if it ticks your boxes, all the better. Very much in dev though, and has been for an awfully long time, site says since 2000 initially and since 2009 as open source, so one may wonder when or if something that could be considered a final version will see the light of day. But they do seem to keep a sustained pace of releases, and with one seeming to have just hit now, it seems a pretty good time to give it a try if you're into that kind of game.
(Heck, I really don't do well at all with RTSs and have decided long ago to stop trying, but had my eyes on that one before that decision, so it's rather nice when I see it coming up again, and that it's still alive and kicking.)

https://www.gog.com/game/dawn_of_man may also be worth a look.

While it is more like Warcraft 3 than Age of Empires you'll probably also like Battle Realms.

www.gog.com/game/battle_realms_winter_of_the_wolf