Probably the difficulty that got you Efthi, Starcraft is notorious for its difficulty in singeplayer mode.

I don't remember if it was the difficulty or not. It would seem strange since I am fraking good with strategy games and wargames, but since the last time I played it was back in....when was it released? 98?, whenever it was, and I don't remember the details.

:max: I have trouble believing that even If the game is this hard, it would be the reason for me to stop playing it...I like a good challenge.

No man, it was HARD.
You needed to have a tenacity that of steel to be able to survive through most of the missions.

They were those kinds of things where you would think that you'd be completely massacred, only to rebuild your base and get your footing, attack a few times, have your base destroyed, rebuild, and etc.
It was really exhausting at the later missions, and most of them could never be finished in one sitting.

I am not saying it wasn't hard, I don't remember. But, I never went far enough, I did not play but a couple of games/missions with it! Perhaps it was the graphics, or I don't know, I am pretty sure it was not the difficulty though.

Eh, you really don't get an idea of how good it is until you play online.
Melee games are fun, but you don't get a sense of how awesome the game is until you play other people's custom maps online (you could automatically download them in the chatroom if you didn't have the map already).
It was just so much fun, in fact, if I hadn't lost my CD case (and the CD key) I'd probably still be playing it today.

I believe you that it is a good game, many people are still playing it, it just doesn't do it for me.
My "plain RTS" fix is Zero hour (though I am looking for another one).
I am thinking of getting Empire Earth II, though I do not know what is the online status of that (are people playing it online?).

Empire Earth II?
Yeah, people are on there constantly, but Age Of Empires III is a much better online, and more fun.
But the most fun you're going to have online with an RTS is Warhammer 40K Dawn Of War.

I don't like the setting of AOE III.....or even the series LOL....apart perhaps from age of mythology and the star wars game.

Warhammer 40k....I forgot about that, I will have a look if there is a demo for it.

The thing with EEII is that I enjoyed EE a lot, and even online, though me and my friend kept losing (we were new at the game) it was fun, then I made a mistake introducing generals to him and EE is history LOL.

40K has a rather large amount of units.
Although if you like Generals I'm pretty sure you'll like 40K.

There are demos online, but they are rather big.

Size is not a problem, I have a sweet 2mbit connection and from gamershell I can usualy download with at least 200kb/s.