New Player Help: How to Counter the Rush?

I’ve been playing AoE since it came out. It’s been one of the classic games that I can always return to and enjoy no matter what. So recently, I decided to start playing online games to try and enjoy a different aspect of the game that I had never really tried.

I enjoy the online gaming and I had some great first games. However, now as I play more I find that I am being destroyed every game by a few similar strategies. Everything revolves around an archer rush, boat rush, or more typically a castle rush.

So here’s my question... I want to know how to get better at this game. I want to be somewhat competitive to where I’m not walking away from every game where some guy just builds a castle in my base and then just kills me. I want to enjoy the online version of this, but it’s so hard to enjoy it when every strategy just revolves around killing you when you can’t do anything about it.

I know some of you will probably comment about how bad I am and I should just get better, but that doesn’t help me. I want legitimate, concrete strategies that can help a new (relative term) player learn how to play in this environment. Please be kind. Lol