The AI is ok, just when it comes to pece deals they are a bit pussy, since you can fairly easy biribe them, after some grand battles where they lose some 20-30k men.I don't think the WWM is that bad when it comes to the AI.... They seem to rush for the Caribbean and South America and get quite rich provinces! In my current Russia game I'm watching the European nations Great Britain, Spain, France and even Italy going after India! (Portugal lost all but 2 provinces in Europe and moved their capital to SA and have stayed there apart from colonising Madagascar).
I've seen the AI do quite well! They go for rich provinces in Asia. They're not as smart as the human but they're not that bad!
The Pursuit Of Glory survived for a while.... It wasn't the best game.... but that was mostly because of a lack of players! I guess the WWM has changed a lot since then though....