MacGamer.net - Age of Mythology

Hunting is the fastest way to gather food in the early game (esp, with Odin's bonus). Research Hunting Dogs to improve these even further. Hunting has another bonus for the Norse. They gain favor for each animal they kill. Gathering from bushes is usually safe (unless the enemy is around), and herdables is the safest way to gather, with the single drawback that unless you allow the animals to fatten, you will not gain the full benefit from using them.

Farming is a last resort in the early game, with the exception of Ra. Because Egyptians are the only ones who can farm in the first age, and Ra can empower buildings, any farms nearby are able to gather faster. Ra can use his priests for this as well, and finally his God Power, Rain, speeds up food gathering for everyone, but most for the caster. It is best to use this before your enemy gets farms built so he doesn't benefit form the increased gathering rate as well. Farms do have the bonus of never going fallow, but can be expensive in the early game when you need to get your other buildings up. Until the late game, when all of the farming improvements have been researched, it is easily the slowest way to gain food.

Fishing is also a good source of food, and is faster than farming, but can be expensive in terms of wood as you need to build both a dock and a series of fishing boats. If you fish make sure to research the techs at the dock in the second age and beyond to speed it up some. The two largest benefits to fishing are that a school of fish never runs out (it is infinite) and it basically gives you a second economic center.

Wood
Food is required to make all buildings (except most 'cheap' Egyptian) and for many units. Because things like Egyptian houses and drop off points do not require wood, they can chance forgoing wood collection for the first age or so. However in order to make the stronger units from the Migdol Stronghold, they will need to be a constant flow of wood. Greeks are very dependent upon wood for all buildings and archer units. Norse can afford a little less wood to start with as once they build an oxcart, that can carry them into the age advance. They do however need wood for their barracks and Hill Forts and most of the strong units.

Gold
Perhaps the most important of the gathered resources as no military unit can be made without it. All units cost wood OR food, but all cost gold (with the exception of various Myth units). As such, it is important to protect your gold sources with units or towers. Scout early and find the gold near your outposts so that you can quickly get your gold income started. It is also a great way to win if you can deny your opponents any gold. Without it, they can not create any units other than the odd myth unit, so an easy win can be gained. If you can't deny the enemy of gold, do NOT allow them to do it to you!

Favor
Each civilization has a unique method of collecting favor, from the worshiping done at Greek temples, to the Egyptians monuments, and the Norse acts of violence. Favor allows you to research some potentially very powerful technologies and without it, you cannot create any myth units (other than whatever free ones you may be entitled to for picking a certain major god). It is possible to win without any favor collected in the game, but with it, your armies can be more varied, preparing them for quicker victories. It should be noted that Norse favor is basically free in that as long as your units are fighting (or at least hunting) there will be favor coming in. Egyptian favor requires an outlay of resources to build the five monuments. As each is built, favor comes in faster. Greeks only need to create a temple and assign some villagers to worship there. Favor for the Greeks is based on a diminishing returns system, so it does not pay to assign more than about 6 villagers to worship. Anything after that is wasted. Also because Zeus assigns favor faster, you may be able to get away with 1 less worshipper.

Population
Population is the most important resource in the later stages of the game. By this time you should have a strong economy and an army prepared to at least defend the economy. In order to expand out though, you will need to make sure that you have an economy that keeps resources coming in, while your army should be expanding so that you can go on the offensive. The game will not allow you to build more than 10 houses, each supporting 10 population. That means with 1 town center and 10 houses, you can only have 115 population. With your economic needs, likely half of that is easily used up to gain resources. Because all military units take multiple population slots, you will not have a lot of room for your army. For this reason it is important to build on any free settlement you encounter (easier for the Norse with their infantry build). Also, upon reaching the 4th age, research the Fortified town center technology to gain an extra 3 population for each town center you have. By worship Isis, you will also gain +5 population for each TC, and by using the Citadel (Sekhemet) GP, you also gain +5 (for that TC only). Also note that no matter how many settlements you have, there is still a population cap of 300 for any player in the game. However, do not stop building a town center on a free settlement (or one you have destroyed!) so that your enemy(s) can not replace his population cap without first taking on a TC!

Gathering Rates