has the AI been upgraded?

[mercurycs]

I bought this game when it first came out and was VERY excited about it. I played it for a bit and was very impressed with what I had seen. I then started reading Posts here that stated that the AI was not too strong once you became familiar enough with the game. I then proceeded to put my copy of the game away because I didn't want to invest too much learning time in a game that I will be able to slaughter all of the time. I unfortunately only play against the computer and not any humans, otherwise I wouldn't care about the AI so much. I was just wondering if any of the Last few patches have updated the AI at all. I REALLY want to get into this game now that I have more time available to me. or should I just wait for dominions III?