Strategy Greats?

[Valiance]

Supreme Commander. I have enjoyed no other RTS since, seriously...

It just did too many things right: Interface, Scale, Unit diversity, Balance

When I first saw Starcraft 2 gameplay it made me physically ill to think a company with Blizzard's money and that much development time the game couldn't at least match SupCom's

This, 100%.

Supreme Commander has the best RTS interface I have ever touched (Though I've never seen SoaSE), and the tactical zoom makes every other RTS unplayable after you've used it.

It's just the epitome of how a massive-scale game should be made. SupCom 2 will probably be better than SC2, but no one will care because SC2 is SC2. But that's fine - sleeper hit for me.

Anyway, I recommend:

SupCom.
SupCom:FA.
DoW 2 if you're looking for something newish. (Also, I know graphics never make a game, but Dawn of War 2 is an exception because your units don't just do an attack animation until something dies, it feels like they're actually fighting down there - I can't explain it, you'd have to see it.)
C+C Generals
C+C Generals:Zero Hour
If you've already played AoE, I guess you've played AoE3's expansions, right? I really like the asian dynasties one.
War3 is good, like Starcraft the multiplayer is highly enhanced through custom maps.

Another quick list of some others I love that aren't necessarily RTS: X-Com, Master of Orion, Master of Magic (free abandonware download), Master of Orion 2, Earth 2150, Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars, Entrepreneur, The Corporate Machine, Galactic Civilizations, etc...

I could go on, but that's plenty.

 

[Dedtoo]

i would have to say Dawn of War and Red Alert 2/3