In my opinion aok is better in almost every way, except the period of history it covers.
Buildings look far more epic in aok, mostly due to their size, but also improved textures.
Unit graphics look better too, I always hated that the axeman, slingers and such didn't have an upgraded look for later ages, because who in the iron age would dress like that?
Gameplay has also improved. Buildings are garissonable, working gates (one of the biggest things I miss in aoe1), pathfinding is better. You have more control over unit behavior (choosing how aggressive they are) and can form formations.
In fact, looking back, I think I should rather have made an aok mod, to mod it to ancient period. But too late for that now.
It would have been great if ES/microsoft would have done it the same as the total war series. They are making remakes of their old titles, but dont become boring at all. Medieval 2 total war is a huge step away from medieval 1 total war, and from the look of it, rome 2 will be very ambitious as well. It really is a shame that they never made a remake of aoe1. AoM is too different and age of empires online cant be seen as a serious remake of aoe, though it does use the same time period.
[This message has been edited by Thompsoncs (edited 08-19-2012 @ 12:09 PM).]