Well, Stainless Steel has released the
second patch for Empires on its official site. It fixes a issue encountered in the multiplayer Gamespy lobbies, though no balance fixes. Here's the skinny on it:
"Version 1.2 - July 2004
Please Note: This upgrade is for the 1.01 Upgrade version only. Please do not attempt to apply this patch to any other version of Empires.
Features
Stainless Steel Studios has fixed an issue involving redundant server queries. This should improve performance in the GameSpy Lobby."