Are Vietnamese a lot better than we think?

So I’m 1500–1600 on Voobly. Not a great player obviously but I watch a lot of aoe2 on streams and study my own play. I got crushed by Vietnamese playing as Vikings and Mayans recently and I don’t know what I could have done differently. I get on the expert level their lack of eco bonus can be exploited early but at my level I can’t do enough damage early to set myself up for the remainder of the game. Feudal is tough because of their ranged unit bonus. Then in castle those two normally strong civs can’t do much to counter an xbow/skirms ball.

Both times I did MAA and did damage early. Killed a couple of vills and idled my enemy. But eventually he gets his range units going and I’m stuck. I can’t mass enough to outnumber his ranged units efficiently even with better ecos. I know Vietnamese counter archer civs relatively well but that ends up being a lot of civs. Do knight civs fare so much better that it gives Vietnamese their stigma as a weak civ? Maybe I’m just playing them wrong but they seem tough to beat at my level.