AMD 64 3000 is a bad performer only if you do tasks which are helped with dual core or if you take into account core 2 duo. otherwise once oced to 2.4-2.6, you should be fine, not great though. However you still need a high end or ultra high end card for a decent gaming experience.(Not talking about AOE3 in particular).
At maximum settings too eh?
It runs the game smoothly coz the onboard GPU is not able to use even half of the effects of game like SM3 or HDR or 16xAA. But the GPU is able to handle the remaining effects (which is supported by the GPU) with ease. The same thing happened to me when i ran NFSMW at 1024x768@max on my GF4 MX 440. The GPU was able to crunch some bare basic effects at max levels.
Belive it or not..AOE3's grapgics engine seems to scale too much. It can even be played on an onboard graphics nd now on my 7600GT if i put every details at max @1280x960 the card comes to its knees.
I don't think the game is SM3.0 and nor does it use HDR, and nobody uses 16x AA on any ATI card or any other geforce 7 card even in SLI
