AoE2Tools VS freeaoe

As far as voobly is concerned you can install AoE2Tools and immediately after installing you'll see a Launcher window click Scan wait for 20 sec or less then the button "2.Start" will be unlocked; click it and finally you'll be prompted to install a hotfix and other things on the fly (takes less than 30 secs) Now just join voobly and play (the platform automatically handles patches for all users)

Of course you can buy and play the game on Steam which is what most people do these days, however before the days of AOE2 on Steam (and post MSZone) people used to play on Voobly - and many still do. If you want to play on Voobly, but have the games on steam you may want to take a look at AoE2 Tools.

Of course you can buy and play the game on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/813780/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition/) which is what most people do these days, however before the days of AOE2 on steam (and post MSZone) people used to play on [Voobly](https://www.voobly.com/games/view/Age-of-Empires-II-The-Conquerors) - and many still do. If you want to play on Voobly, but have the games on steam you may want to take a look at [AOoE2 Tools](https://github.com/gregstein/AoE2Tools).

But yeah, I played for years using Wololo Kingdoms mod + AoE2 HD + Voobly. It's still fun even without all the things DE brings. There's also this tool to make that setup even easier. I wouldn't recommend playing multiplayer on HD, just stick to Voobly, much better experience.

Play on Voobly. If you can’t get it to work with HD, use GregStein’s tools: https://github.com/gregstein/AoE2Tools

I have tried building opensource aoe2 implementations like freeaoe, openage, but with not much success.

That stuff is copyrighted, therefore you have to either buy it or download the trial version. Another project that attempts to replicate AOE2 takes a similar approach: Freeaoe