Gameranger is a **** is even worse that steam edition. 1.4 didnt work propiety, with a lot of bugs and im worry for 1.5 performace in GR, dont have a spect mod, you play with a very bad and small resolution and Gameranger dont have a anticheat for aoe, you can easly hack the game and those are the reason for why i unistall GR and play in Voobly. If Gameranger dont improve, that desicion can be a huge mistake and can to ruin the tourney.
I think you did not play enough on GameRanger so your points are wrong. I have played for years on GR and Voobly is a better platform but everything still works on GR.
1. 1.4C works perfectly fine. Data mods work find too i.e. Forgotten etc. Not sure about 1.5 because never used it on GR.
2. With Userpatch alternative install you can have 1.0c patch with as big resolution as your monitor allows. I have 1440p and was working absolutely fine.
3. All graphics mod work on GR as well. Graphics mod in AOC are just about replacing files which are corresponding to terrain etc. Voobly makes it easy because voobly places those files in right folder. For it to work on GR you have to read 1 or 2 lines about which file goes in which folder.