What's the optimal build order and amount of villagers you should have before advancing?

I have played this game since 90s, but I'm still horrible.

One thing I seem to not get is the amount of villagers I should have for each age, how many collect what and what I should have buildt.

Example, I can build 1-2 houses, a mill and pump out 14 villagers. 10 collect bushes, harvest sheeps etc. while 4 chop wood. However, when food resources around me is getting empty and farming is the only solution left. I may not have enough wood to replace all my food collecting villagers for that work. soo maby 7 of them go for farming while the extra 3 help with the wood. I usually advance here and build extra houses for more villagers. But I notice I then have low amount of food for getting the amount of villagers I want.

Sometimes, my economy is ok. Others, it's soo bad I don't even have workers to collect stones which is needed to get defences up or build extra village centres.

Soo in short, I have no good structure how to start bilding up my empire. I know other civs probably have other tactics (ex huns don't need houses, india villagers are cheap AF and etc.). But I seem to not have a single good one for the mojority of the civs.