Despite being largely forgotten in favor of its sequels, the original Age of Empires remained popular decades later in Vietnam, due in large part to pirated copies of the game being bundled in Vietnamese computers and a long history of LAN matches dating back to the 1990's. Modern Vietnamese players often use custom rulesets, and top players have earned tens of thousands of dollars in tournaments viewed by audiences as high as the hundreds of thousands.

In 2023, this popularity in Vietnam was formally acknowledged by Forgotten Empires, the modern developers of the series, in their "Return of Rome" expansion for Age of Empires II, which ported and updated content from the original Age of Empires to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. The expansion included a new faction, Lac Viet, "in honor and recognition of ["The Rise of Rome" expansion from the first Age of Empires game's] phenomenal popularity in Vietnam."

In the Age of Empires II competitive scene, a "Daut Castle" refers to a Castle that either requires the death of many of one's Villagers to complete, or is left unfinished (but nearly complete) due to an enemy attack. The term was coined in 2016 and named after Serbian competitive player DauT, who lost a large number of Villagers before having his Castle quickly destroyed in a broadcasted game. In the game's 2019 Definitive Edition, this moment was acknowledged through the achievement "Castle of Doubt", which is rewarded to players who lose an unfinished Castle that is 95% or more towards completion.

In the original game, the scenario "The Battle of Stirling", which is based off of the historical Battle of Stirling Bridge, did not feature an actual bridge on the map, likely resulting in the abridged name of the scenario. The Stirling Bridge was eventually added to the map in the game's Definitive Edition, serving as a means for the Scots to cross over onto the English camp.