Advice for a casual? Not trying to become a pro, but some small improvements. :)

I've played AoE since the first one. And for much of that time, I've played as a filthy casual. More of a sandbox and city builder almost. heh.

I've been trying to up my game a little bit. I mean, I don't want to sit and crunch numbers, or totally micro my vils, but I figure a little discussion might help me up the AI difficulty I'm playing on. (I cannot stand losing, so I'm also trying to overcome that distaste and teach myself it's okay to lose).

So usually what I do when I start a game:

1. Send all but two vils chopping wood - clearing out lone trees around the TC, or if I'm lucky, off to a forest to build a logging camp.
2. One vil to build a mill at the berries if they exist, or sheep, or deer.
3. One vil to build my first house
4. Set TC to build another vil to max pop
5. Start scouting in concentric circles around my TC to open up the map.

I put high priority on villagers - collecting wood and any food resources. Once easy food is gone, it's a mill + farms. I like to have nine farms surrounding my mill, and later when I can, around a dozen surrounding (less neatly) my TC.

Since I play AI on low enough difficulties, I don't have to start an army immediately, although I'll train five soldiers before I age up.

I also get vils on stone and gold asap.

When I play my wife, I tend to hugely out-do her on resources and army, probably because I try to maximize my villager count. About half my pop goes into villagers.

So I know that's not a ton of details, but... any suggestions for me? Even if I don't take your advice because it seems too much of a pain for what I want, I do honestly appreciate any input. And I'll try to try anything once, at least. :)