Can You Play the Addictive Age of Empires on Chromebooks Yet?

As a lifetime Age of Empires fan who wants to game on-the-go, I‘ve been eagerly awaiting the day when Chromebooks could handle its epic historical RTS battles. And after months of experiments getting my hopes up then facing harsh reality checks, I still must unfortunately answer:

No, Chromebooks still cannot directly run the Steam-exclusive Age of Empires: Definitive Edition or its memory-guzzling predecessor installments. The Chrome OS ecosystem itself remains the bottleneck.

Yet while Age fans like myself endure impatiently, the prospects for Chromebook gaming grow brighter by the quarter…

Why Age of Empires Remains Off-Limits

Make no mistake, from a raw specs standpoint the current Age of Empires catalog caters only to proper gaming PCs:

Indeed, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition has sold over 250,000 copies on Steam since its 2018 debut by leveraging that platform‘s long-cultivated Windows compatibility.

Meanwhile Chrome OS – powering over 11% of laptops in North America as of 2022 – enters unfamiliar territory in running intensive x86 programs…

The Quandries of Steam on Chromebooks

While Google integrated "Steam for Chrome OS" beta support across suitable Chromebook models this year, don‘t get your hopes up yet fellow gamers!

• The approved whitelist of just 80+ Steam games leaves out Age of Empires and most newer titles.
• Performance issues plague those that do work, ranging from crashes to horrendous frame rates.
• Chromebooks must allocate precious internal eMMC space for game installs despite having only 64 GB typically.

Streaming from a gaming PC partly offsets these limitations but depends heavily on your home network speeds to avoid unplayable lag and pixelation.

Based on my testing, consistently smooth 720p streams need 100 Mbps wired connections minimum. Wireless AC can manage with tweaking but remains a gamble, while Steam Link proved entirely unusable for RTS gaming over my mediocre public WiFi.

Suffice to say that Age of Empires won‘t grace a Chromebook natively for a long while yet…

Makeshift Workarounds Tested & Lessons Learned

My trials getting various Age of Empires versions running on Chromebook hardware ultimately proved fruitless, but imparted some surprising discoveries around Chrome OS‘ nascent Windows compatibility:

Braving Linux Waters

Enabling Linux container support has become easier across consumer Chromebook models in 2022. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition partially runs via this route, but the experience left much to be desired:

• Multiplayer crashed out consistently during the pre-game lobby phase.
• Late-game performance tanked severely despite low settings.
• No integration with Chrome OS‘s wider filesystem or desktop environment.

I achieved better results dual-booting proper Linux distributions like Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Arch Linux since they access hardware directly:

• Age 2 ran fluidly for full 1v1 matches with medium detail chosen.
• The Linux Steam client offers full AAA game support just like on Windows.
• But the multi-OS approach proved rather janky day-to-day.

Alas, until Valve get their Chromebook Steam client properly aligned with Google‘s own Linux vision, we Age of Empires fans gain little…

The Mobile Route?

With Age of Empires heading to Android and iOS devices later this year, could mobile ports better suit Chromebooks than their desktop counterparts?

Unfortunately there‘s scarcely any details around graphical quality or multiplayer aspects to judge yet. And requiring an emulator to run mobile games on Chrome OS carries its own issues around controls and stability at least.

While Apple‘s resurgent M-series chips benchmark similarly to Chromebook-popular Qualcomm SOCs today, actually attaining iPad-like gaming prowess remains unlikely given Chrome OS‘s restrictive game development culture absent on iPadOS.

Cloudy With a Chance of Disappointment

I briefly toyed with streaming Windows 10 via Shadow or Amazon WorkSpaces to access Steam natively. However, input latency shot through the roof for any RTS titles I tested.

Perhaps if Google further optimized its own Stadia tech for non-cloud Chromebook gaming rather than pivoting business focus, a solution may have emerged…

But I digress into wishful thinking territory – back to reality!

A Bright Future in Sight for Chromebook Gamers

Although I can‘t play my favorite historical RTS franchise on my Acer Chromebook yet, there remains positive signs towards enriched Chrome OS gaming every quarter…

Mature Opportunities Abound

Between Android apps and browser-based titles alone a wealth of gaming variety already exists – from iconic flash games to accessible MMORPGs like Runescape.

Publishers eagerly port simpler indie games to Chromebooks too like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Slay the Spire knowing Steam-class graphics aren‘t essential.

And streaming providers constantly enhance controller and mobile support, bringing platforms like Xbox Cloud Gaming ever closer to mainstream viability.

For us RTS fans recent triumphs like Full Fat‘s Z – Steel Soldiers port also bode well for attracting more resource-intensive franchises eventually.

Faster Hardware Arrives

Qualcomm and MediaTek have ramped up CPU+GPU power significantly on latest Chromebook chipsets. Combined with more base RAM as standard, entry-level Chrome OS devices grow impressively capable!

Foldable OLED touchscreens even emerge now offering high resolutions perfect for immersive gaming. And tablet modes better suit mobile-centric titles available.

In fact Google themselves teased preliminary plans this year for their own in-house "gaming-focused" Chromebook processor leveraging AMD RDNA graphics architecture expertise… Exciting times ahead!

While Windows gaming remains out of reach currently then, Chromebooks in 2024 stand tantalizingly close to unlocking their gaming potential in full. And with Age of Empires slated to grace our mobile devices soon, I remain hopeful for the future!

Any fellow Chromebook gamers eager to discuss experiences or recommend titles? I‘d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!