Hello BJenksss,
Have you checked the forum posts to see if there is anything here that may help ?,
You could try re-installing both programs, Gameranger and Age of Empires, as administrator and run as administrator, this has helped in the past.
Download and run these free apps.
Malwarebytes
CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download (Backup Registry When Prompted).
Also, check your file system, open a command prompt as administrator and type
sfc/scannow press enter and let it scan, if errors are found, you will need to run it again, until clean.
Are all your drivers up to date ?, check for new drivers, not just video, but sound drivers, and chipset drivers too, they all have an impact on gaming.
Have you added any new software/hardware ?.
I would look through all the old posts in the Gaming section of the forum, there will be more ideas there.
Hope some of this helps, good luck and post your results.