Does the AI cheats on resources on moderate?

I was playing the babylonian mission Holy Man. I remember that I beat all the campaigns when I was a kid.

I know the AI doesn't cheat with resources on AoE2 but it seems to me that it does in AoE1:DE.

I Basically managed to wall myself, and build a counter attack, but the AI kept spamming chariots and priests. I ran out of gold and stone, I managed to build a fort on the south of the river, walled it and put several towers. Then that gold resource depleted and I just couldn't keep training units that required gold.

The AI seemed to be struggling for gold too, because it kept trying to cross over to my side to mine my gold.

That being said 20 minutes more of game and I could only spam archers, axemen and horsemen because there was no more gold on the map, but the AI still kept training priests, and chariots (not as often as before, but it could field 5 or 6 chariots and 4 priests consistently).

I recognize that I failed in micromanaging the army but I was hoping to be able to at least overwhelm them with units.

Also I noticed that I get outranged by priests every time, and my units are too stupid to follow them for some reason. Any tip regarding this?