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MEDIA ALERT: AUGUST 8, 2000

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RALLY THE TROOPS! AGE OF EMPIRES II: THE CONQUERORS EXPANSION GOES GOLD

Microsoft today announced that Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, the award-winning sequel to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, has gone gold. This means that the product is complete and is expected to hit store shelves in the U.S. in late August. To celebrate the game's final code, Ensemble Studios, developers of the Age of Empires franchise, is showcasing "The Conquerors Designer Journal," a weekly diary focusing on this highly anticipated game.

The Conquerors Expansion features five new civilizations: the Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Koreans, and Spanish, along with four new historically based campaigns and over ten new units. Each civilization has unique attributes, buildings, and technologies, as well as unique combat units based on its historical counterpart. "Smart villagers," who go to work immediately and efficiently after constructing a drop-off building, and farm queues, which allow the gamer to automatically replant exhausted farms, add realism and ease-of-play to the gaming experience. Continuing to build on the Age of Empires franchise, the Conquerors Expansion showcases the expertise of Bruce Shelley, and offers the most feature-rich expansion pack created to date.

"The Conquerors Designer Journal" gives gamers insight into new game types, instructions on customizing their own map scripts, and information on civilizations revitalized from the original Age of Empires II. The journal is available at: http://www.ensemblestudios.com/openjournal2/. 

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion will be available at retail locations throughout North America in late August for an anticipated street price of US$29.95. More information is available at the game's official Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/ , or on the Ensemble Studios Web site at http://www.ensemblestudios.com/.

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