Noob here: Beating Moderate AI, reaching classical faster, build orders, etc.

Hi folks,

Thanks to the June sales on Steam, I bought AoM EE and got back into this wonderful game. I used to play it a lot as a kid and a teenager (currently 24 yo) but I exclusively played the solo campaigns and random maps on Easy, and I never played a single multiplayer game.

So I'm trying to get better at the game, and after having beaten the Fall of the Trident campaign on Moderate, I'm now trying to win 1v1 games against the Moderate AI. The thing is, the opponent always reaches Classical before me, which means he's able to attack me before I've even had the opportunity to create military units to build barracks. Usually, I'm only able to reach Classical between 5:30 and 6:00. I imagine this is too slow as I've seen many people say you should aim for a 4:30 Classical to get a good start into the game.

My questions are:

• Do you recommend learning a build order in order to better manage early games and age up faster? Or should I first play more games against the AI without having a particular build order? (I'm afraid that by learning a build order and sticking to it, my playing won't be as versatile as it should be and I won't be able to adapt to other maps/gods/opponents etc.)
• Is it absolutely necessary to age up before 6:00 to not get stomped by the AI/human opponent?
• I usually play Zeus (I know Greeks better than other civs and I like the looks, the mythology etc.). Would you say he's a good god for beginners? What are some good major gods for noobs (I don't own the Chinese expansion)?

Thanks for your help, looking forward to perhaps having a few games with you!