All of that depends heavily on the settings.
1. What's the map type/size?
2. How many players?
3. What's the pop limit?
It also depends on whether you want to start winning now, or understand more about zone strategy so you can skip merrily along later.
If you want to start winning now (eg get to intermediate), I'll assume huge medit noreveal 3v3. The strats vary wildly from one civ to another, but I'd recommend trying the civs in this order:
1. shang, minoan, macedonian, hittite - good overall
2. yammy, roman, phoenie, egypt - more specialized
3. assy, sumie, palmy, persian - must think differently
4. babylonian, carth, cho, greek - challenging
Villies - +12-30 before tool, +4-12 before bronze.
FBs - +0-24 before tool, +0-12 before bronze.
If on the other hand you want to know more about how strats evolved and to see how variations on old strats are now being touted as new (and what strats you can adapt to defeat them).. You might want to re-do the evolution of AoE strategy only faster:
1. shang axers (also roman, mace, phoenie) - +16-28 villies stone, +8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - clubbers/axers
2. yammy scouts (also shang, roman) - +16-28 villies stone, +8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - scouts
3. assy bowmen (also hittite, shang, phoenie, roman) - +16-28 villies stone, +8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - bowmen/slingers
4. yammy cav rush (also shang, persian, mace, palmy) - +20-24 villies stone, +4-8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - cavs/camels
5. assy CAs (also hittite +STs, egypt +ChC) - +20-24 villies stone, +4-8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - CAs
6. minoan boat boom (also phoenie, persian, palmy) - +12-16 villies +20-24 FBs stone, +4-8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - compies/cavs
7. phoenie boat rush (also minoan, yammy, roman) - +16-20 villies stone, +8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - camels/CAs, warships
8. minoan boat wars (also phoenie, hittite, palmy) - +20-24 villies +12-16 FBs stone, +4-8 villies +8-12 FBs tool - compies/STs, warships
9. yammy overboom (also shang, hittite, phoenie, roman) - +24-28 villies +12-16 FBs stone, +4-8 villies +8-16 FBs tool - warships, axers/scouts
10. shang overboom (also yammy, assy, hittite, mace) - +28-32 villies +8-12 FBs stone, +4-8 villies +4-8 FBs tool - warships, bowmen/slingers