Anyway, I did have a chance last night to play the demo for a couple hours. Anyone that said it is different from AOC is correct - it definitely takes some getting used to. It actually took me 5 minutes before I realized the population totals were next to the "other" resources. I also don't think I was able to get a villager to repair a Trireme. Either my clicking is deficient or that's not how you do it anymore. I'm sure after I get used to the new way of looking at and doing things that it'll be even better than AOC. The in-game graphics are fantastic. The cinematic ones (from the demo, of course) were good. I can understand what people are saying about not being able to tell apart the different infantry types but after just two hours of the demo I was becoming much more proficient at identifying the small units.
Finally, I don't think there's much widespread interest in this game. When calling around to various places, it's obvious I was the first person to ask about the game to the person that answered the phone. Personally there's not many things that would've stopped me from spending the paltry $50 on this game.