is the classic and definitive better

[CommCodie]

i grew up playing classic

[Maxillian]

The short answer that I will give you is that the Definitive has overall way more content.
It's essentially a continuation of the game, with plenty of new stuff.

So do you just want to replay the same old game all over again or play something new and refreshing?

[.:Jj:.]

The only thing the original AoE III might be better at is performance on very old, weak computers with highly limited storage space.

[Eric The Red]

Legacy game campaigns are better then DE versions of them.

Legacy game has better performance.

Legacy game has a lot of custom maps,scenarios and so on that that works without problems but has issues if trying to use it in DE.

Legacy multiplayer is easier to use,can see how many people are online, can see if friends are offline or online in the middle of a game or online but not in the middle of the game, can see what someones home city looks like with any customization they used or didn't use as well as to see their Decks.

DE has more official maps. civilizations, cards, age up options, revolutions. native settlements, outlaws, Historic Battles that can also be played in co-op, game modes and still gets support (sometimes creates new bugs).

[Krosis Priest]

As someone who played both, imo the *only* advantages of the classic/legacy version:
- Some of the campaign updates in DE (strictly story/dialogue) are not good/poorly executed
- The leveling system which also unlocked cards, rather than having them all available from the start - if you like that

Besides that, imo the DE is really an excellent expansion of a very good game into a truly brilliant game. I used to just "like" AoE3, now I love it and never get bored of it, and that's strictly single player. It's just a massively fun game now with a ton of depth and almost endless options for experimentation.