While I've only played EE1 so far by going into the editor and making a custom map there (and there is a randomize option), you can disable the AI cheating as part of the player options.

It is also possible to re-name your saved Random game into a Scenerio file, then edit it in the editor so that the AI won't cheat.

Oh, never actually knew that. I think the campaigns were what was considerd the best part of the game. You should absolutely try them.

You can turn off the AI cheating, but it doesn't really function. The AI doesn't know how to build farms so you need to give it a pre-built base or it will come to a screeching halt as soon as the forage patches expire. However, even then it will often just not task workers to collect resources in the first place. So while you can turn off the AI's cheating, it just reveals why the cheating is there in the first place: the AI is an unfinished buggy mess.

I experimented with trying to get a non-cheating AI to work in the editor a lot as a kid, and I eventually gave up because I realized the AI just isn't programmed to control its economy and no amount of fiddling with triggers in the map editor would change that.

this, lol. It would be such a great game if the AI wouldn't cheat so much, but it's overly frustrating. Even using cheats yourself wouldn't work, as the AI always cheat harder!