Mods
I've got the Age of Imperialism mod - I think it's great too!
The Interface is tweaked, so it looks a bit clearer - just little details, there are different sprites (rebels are better, with pitchforks etc) and the time is extended, it goes from the Fall of Constatinople (sp?) - to whenever, as it has a no time limit patch.
The tech tree is tweaked a bit too, and there are new scenarios.
Only trouble is that when you get to 1990ish all the little nations have revolutionary 60 tech, and everywhere has max forts!
Somewhere on this forum, there's a list of all the mods - can't remember where now!
Oh yeah, AoI works well on 1.09 - if you want to try it.