Microsoft announced today that Age of EmpiresŪ Expansion: The Rise of Rome, is starting to show up on store shelves. There have been several reports of its availability at select retail outlets throughout the United States, and full distribution is expected by November 5, 1998. The retail version of Age of Empires Expansion: The Rise of Rome is now playable for free matchmaking over the MSN Gaming Zone.

Age of Empires Expansion: The Rise of Rome is an expansion pack for the award winning, best-selling real-time strategy game Age of Empires that focuses on the ancient Roman Empire. The expansion pack is being developed by Ensemble Studios, and features the expertise of Bruce Shelley, co-designer of Age of Empires and the hit strategy game Civilization, and Sandy Petersen as lead designer.

Microsoft today announced the MSN Gaming Zone "Rumble for Rome" tournament, following the recent news that Age of EmpiresŪ Expansion: Rise of Rome is starting to show up on store shelves. The best Age players will compete in a no-holds-barred best-civilization-wins battle royale. Sign-up begins November 5, and the first round starts November 14. Eight rounds will be played throughout November and early December, with the Championship round taking place at the Wizards of the Coast Game Center in Seattle on December 11.

The expansion pack brings with it many new strategic possibilities. Players are encouraged to start polishing their gameplay as soon as possible in order to perfect their use of the new units, technologies, and map types.

The grand prize is a trip for two to Rome (courtesy of Canadian Airlines), US$2000 cash in spending money, an authentic replica of a Roman shield, and a Zone Champion T-shirt. The four tournament finalists each receive a trip for one to Seattle, Washington (airfare provided by American Airlines), accommodations for three nights, VIP tickets to the Rise of Rome pre-finals party held at Wizards of the Coast Game Center, an authentic replica of a Roman helmet, and a Zone T-shirt.

For more details, please visit the official MSN Gaming Zone "Rumble for Rome" Tournament page.

The trial version of Rise of Rome has been streaming out of Download.com servers faster than a Palmyran Camel Rider! It's been on the charts for less than two weeks, and has already cracked the top ten downloads of all time in the Strategy/War category. With 123,000 downloads, the RoR trial is on a pace to surpass even the venerable AoE trial. It has been in the top ten overall downloads each week since its debut on October 16th.

The original Age of Empires trial version is still being downloaded at quite a clip, with over 593,000 downloads on Download.com!