Does anyone here play AOE on a Mac? If yes, how?

I'm looking to get back to playing the game although I don't own a Windows laptop/machine anymore. From the research I did, it seems the only way to play AOE on a Mac is to do it via Parallels Desktop. While that looks like a viable option, it has a cost to it. I'm just trying to understand if there's any other way to do this, any suggestions/recommendations are welcome.