I'm playing that Game for years (so I'm still used to the old strategie) and can only say, that this is one of the best Strategie Games we have. The game starts slow, works slow but after you are in contact with one or more enemys you have to act quickly.
I played Settlers 2 the next Generation but it's not the same, the whole gameplay is changed with only some additional functions.
Therefore I'm playing Settlers 2.5 - RttR (www.siedler25.org) the made a REAL remake of that great game, you can play via Internet-Lobby or direct IP, ships are working, some unsefull addons are added but you can chose which you want. All in all a 7 player match is very hard because everybody knows how the game works and thats really hard.
So guys, go on playing, Settlers 2 will never have a game you can Compare it to. (except settlers 1 ;))