I'm currently in the market right now for something that can be used for gaming that's not necessarily top of the line. I just want to be able to play games that I bought before, particularly AoE III and IV DE (from Microsoft Store, not Steam).

Other use cases would be as a dev machine where I run Visual Studio 2022 and SSMS. Also thinking if I want to future proof it should I be interested in playing Microsoft Flight Simulator later on.

I'm interested in getting a mini-PC but I'm not sure if they are enough to run AoE. In particular, the Minisforum 773 Sakura Edition got my attention because it goes well with my pink Samsung M8 monitor. Does buying an eGPU resolve it? Or is this setup not worth to explore?

Not sure if I want to consider a gaming laptop as I already have a Surface Pro 9 which I use when I work outside. But I definitely don't want to game on it and suffer the same fate as my old Pro 4 whose battery bloated.

Legion Go and other handheld gaming PCs looks tempting, but I don't see think it's worth it unless you have Steam or Xbox Game Pass. I'm curious though how they were able to make AoE II and IV playable in Xbox.

It seems the best option would be to get a tower(?) PC but I don't have the knowledge to build one. I saw the Legion Tower 5i's baseline specs and the price seems ok, but trying to max it out suddenly doubles the price. Is it necessary that I get a gaming specific desktop, or should I explore workstations as well? Also, do people still use an AVR for their desktops?

I have no limit when it comes to budget, but I don't want to splurge that much as I am not really a hard-core gamer.