How to Play Age of Empires Online: Free Setup Guide with Celeste
Microsoft shut down Age of Empires Online's servers in 2014. Officially the game has been gone ever since, but the volunteer Project Celeste team set up their own servers and brought it back. Today you can download the game, create an account and play the quests, co-op missions and player-versus-player matches.
We first wrote this page in 2018. Installation has become much easier since then, and most of the old steps no longer apply. The information below has been updated based on Celeste's own installation and FAQ pages.
Is it really free?
Yes. Celeste isn't a commercial project; there's no purchase price and no subscription. In player-versus-player (PvP) matches, character level and gear aren't taken into account, so a newcomer plays on equal terms.
The only requirement is an internet connection: the game doesn't start offline, and even single-player quests are played while connected to the Celeste server. Celeste is a fan project that operates under Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules; it has no connection to Microsoft.
Installation: the recommended way
The easiest option is Celeste's installer. It installs the game and the launcher together, so you don't need to download anything else.
- Download Celeste.Installer.exe (the latest release on Celeste's GitHub page).
- Run it, choose an installation folder and follow the steps. It can take a few minutes because the game files are downloaded.
- When the installation is done, the Celeste Launcher opens. Create an account there (you need a valid email address) and log in.
- Press the "Play" button.
Celeste's installation page also has an English video that walks through the same process step by step.
Installation: through Steam
Use this route if you want the game to show up in your Steam library.
- Install Steam and create an account if you don't have one.
- Type steam://install/105430 into your browser and open it; Steam will offer to install Age of Empires Online.
- Download CelesteLauncher.zip from Celeste's installation page.
- Extract the archive into the game's folder. The default location is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Age of Empires Online.
- Run "Celeste Launcher.exe" and create an account or log in.
- Click the hammer icon in the launcher, choose "Convert to Steam Game" and confirm. From then on, pressing "Play" in Steam opens the Celeste launcher.
- Click the hammer icon again and choose "Game Scan". Point the scan location to the game's main folder and start the scan. Missing files are downloaded and the game is patched.
- That's it. Press "Play" in the launcher to start playing.
Playing on Linux
On Linux the game runs with the Age of Empires Online install script on Lutris. That's also Celeste's official recommendation.
Which languages are supported?
The languages you can pick in the launcher are English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese. There's no Turkish. The game is simple enough to play in English; apart from reading quest text, language isn't much of a barrier.
Common errors and fixes
The items below are compiled from the technical issues section of Celeste's FAQ. If your error isn't here, check the full list there.
| Error | Fix |
|---|---|
| The game doesn't open at all when you press "Play" | Install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (the x86 package, since the game is 32-bit). |
| xlive.dll not found | Run hammer → Game Scan in the launcher; it downloads the missing file. |
| Another .dll file is missing | Install the DirectX, Visual C++ Redistributable and Universal C Runtime (UCRT) updates. |
| Game Initialization failed (CORE) | Enable DirectPlay via hammer → Windows Features. |
| Error related to xlive.log | Run the launcher as administrator. If the file path in the error message includes a OneDrive folder, OneDrive is most likely the cause; Celeste recommends uninstalling OneDrive. |
| Connection timeout | Run Game Scan first, then use the Firewall Helper in the launcher to add the game to your firewall exceptions. |
| "You are not allowed" warning | There's a one-account-per-person rule; if you already have an account, you can't create a second one. Non-standard characters (such as accented letters) in the email address or password can also cause this error. |
If you can't connect to a friend in co-op or PvP, see Celeste's co-op/PvP guide. If that doesn't solve it, the technical support channel on the Celeste Discord server is quite active.
Which civilizations are there?
The game has 8 civilizations, all free:
- Babylonians
- Celts
- Egyptians
- Greeks
- Indians
- Romans
- Persians
- Norse
You create a separate character for each civilization and develop its own capital city. Detailed introductions to the civilizations are on Celeste's civilizations page.
Leftovers from the old version
The Celeste_Launcher_Gui.zip, the separate AOEO_Setup.exe download and the "Helpers > Steam" menu described in our original 2018 guide are no longer used. If you have an old installation, the cleanest option is to run the new installer or do a Game Scan in the launcher.
Comments (2)
Admin
Teşekürler Melih, sunucuların hala çalışıyor olması gerçekten çok güzel 😉
Melih
admin abi kral adamsın şimdi indirdim ve buradan okuduklarımla oyunu kurup oynadım hem harika hemde ucretsiz oyun süper ya