I haven't played AoE in over a decade, but looking at the original graphics in the article, it looks exactly like I remember. Nostalgia often is not kind to games we used to love (haven't played Goldeneye/Perfect Dark in a while? Don't bother), but AoE, even looking like a 1997 game, still looks just fine.

Maybe it's because so many F2P mobile games copied their art style directly so it looks like it could be a mobile RTS from 2015 that's kept that art style so relevant.