Age of Mythology was good as well, but I feel like after the expansion Ensemble just careened downhill uncontrollably. I wouldn't go so far as to call it better than Age of Empires II though.
I used to love building beautiful thought out cities with way more houses than I needed, and the background music is essentially the ground zero to where I can trace all of my musical tastes.
Age of Mythology is right up there with Rise of Nations, Starcraft and every Age of Empires game as being what I consider to be the pinnacle of RTS gaming. Warcraft felt too small to me and C and C felt too simple, but I still consider the Age of Empires series to be the standard which all other RTS games must be judged by.