Do we get the source files?

Various features were deliberately removed so that the game could run and even work on graphics cards like the GT 5200 (based on nVidia chips)... I don't remember what the high-end models from ATi were at the time, but we didn't consider them because their market share among potential buyers didn't exceed 1-5%.

And I apologize, but cutting back on graphics and then completely abandoning it is the stupidest thing you can do (it would have been better to find a golden mean between high-end and budget options and focus on that). This is not an excuse for weak graphics; Age of Empires 3, which was released a year earlier, has better graphics and more customization options. And what about Heroes? It has anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and shadows that are divided into two types.