Comment A great alternative to GameSpy is Voobly (Score -1, Flamebait) 145
I've been using Voobly.com for a few games that used to by hosted on GameSpy. In many cases, they've added some excellent third party patches, such as the AoE I HD fan patch @ http://www.voobly.com/pages/vi... -- features include: HD resolution support, multi-mon, new map sizes, new map types (all free).
Their AoE II support is 2nd to none, adding features like spectator mode (supporting over 100 spectators).