MSN Games has just announced today that as of June 19th, the MSN Gaming Zone will no longer be supporting CD-Rom games. This means that players will no longer be able to use the Zone matchmaking service for Age of Empires titles.
This includes Age of Empires, Rise of Rome, Age of Empires II, and The Conquerors expansion. We at Ensemble Studios were recently made aware of this and will be actively looking for possible solutions for this situation over the coming weeks.
For more information please read the Full Announcement and the Age of Empires Announcement at the Zone.