Age of Empires III is the third installment in the series of real-time strategy games. The main idea of the gameplay remains unchanged: with the limited amount of resources and a handful of settlers, you must think about the expansion of your colony. Besides the strong economic thread, you should also think about the development of your army. Like in the previous games your people start in an early part of humanity's history and progress to new ages (up to the industrial age) with better weapons and other possibilities.

In the first add-on for Age of Empires III you continue to play the story of the Black-family. Now you begin as Nathaniel Black, son of Nonahkee - a Iroquois - as he struggles to find his place in the new world. And with the Independence War not far away the decision for whom his heart beats, doesn't get any easier. Later you take control over Chayton Black, grandson of Nathaniel who needs to take the side of the Sioux or his fellow settlers during the Black Hills Gold Rush. The add-on adds three new playable parties to the game (Aztecs, Iroquois and Sioux) as well as several new units and buildings to the existing parties like a Spy or a Saloon.

The Asian Dynasties is the second expansion for Age of Empires III and requires the original game to play. Three civilizations have been added: The Chinese, the Japanese and the Indians, with news maps in Asia as well as new world maps. Each of the 3 civilizations comes with a new campaign, consisting of 5 scenarios each. All of them can build wonders to advance through the ages (5 each), explorers are called monks and they can build a consulate to form alliances with European nations, along with export as a new kind of resource. Minor civilizations included are Bhakti, the Jesuits, the Sufis, the Shaolin, the Udasi, and the Zen. Each of the civilizations comes with a different kind of gameplay, relating to the way new civilians enter the scene, food and resources gathering, specific strong units with special abilities and a variety of buildings and military units. Multiplayer comes with new maps and 4 new game modes: King of the Hill (keep an area occupied), Regicide (protect a single Regent unit and kill your opponent's to win the game), Treaty (games with periods of peace and blockades), and Treaty No-Blockade (identical to Treaty but without the blockades).