I always loose in a couple of minutes in 0 A.D. :-(
Then again, I am more interested in exploration and building than fighting to the dead. I loved playing Age of Empires on the easy setting and then go overboard with the civilization building.
We started 3v3 on normal difficulty, as some of us had AoE experience, but quickly had to go down to 3v2 very easy until we learned to win relatively consistently (this took quite a bit of time).
Hopefully it isn't like Supreme Commander or Total Annihilation where the AI is more than happy to micromanage you to death.
"Ah, I see you can handle attacks, but can you handle little groups of 3 attackers going after every resource simultaneously and running away when you look at them; all the time?"
That crap is no fun to play against. Not unless your own units can be programmed with some basic AI to counter it.
I played previous release with friends, it was quite enjoyable. AI is super strong for newbies.