I've played Civ 1 and Civ 2 and every other Civ you can think of and have had no problem advancing through the ages.
I've now played through 2 games of Civ 3 on the easiest setting. On the first game when I got the warning that I was in the year 2000 and whatever and the game was going to end soon I wasn't even up to riflemen yet (and neither was the AI). In the second game I got as far as riflemen (and that was it) and the AI wasn't even that far yet. And to get that far it seemed like I was pumping everything I had into science.
What am I doing wrong? I never had this problem with the other Civs.
I play on regent , and the AI usually gives me a hard time surviving. I just won my
first game barely with Space Race Victory in 1990, with 1 component ahead of the Egypts