Age of Empires 2 how to improve my early game?

Hi guys. I've been playing Age of Empires 2 (DE) against the AI. I’m kind of a noob and I wonder if you guys have some tips to improve my early game. I am playing at Moderate skill level, and even when I set the game speed to "slow" I can't seem to build up my economy and army fast enough. The AI always manages to advance through the levels/ages before I can, and always manages to attack before I build up even the smallest bit of an army. They usually attack right after I get to castle age.

Here's what I've been doing, so that maybe you can see where I'm going wrong.

First few villagers, I use them to build a house, then a mill, and immediately get to work gathering berries or working on the sheep. I make more villagers till I have about ten of them and put those on food too, whatever food is on the map immediately nearby. The next villagers I task onto wood, and then the next 10 I put on a mix of food, wood, and gold. By this point the immediate food around the town center has run out, and I start building farms, though I've probably at least started to advance to feudal age. I build as I go, usually taking 2-3 villagers off wood to do it.

I take the tech updates for resource collection as soon as they're available

Food seems to be the resource that seems to hold me back the most. Almost all of it seems to get spent on villagers (I try to make at least 40) and research. I cant afford to make military till I'm in the castle age, at which point the AI attacks.

Any tips?