It looks great, but it slows the game down incredibly. After one game I turned off animation and the game played 3 times as fast. There is also a pretty good smattering of multimedia throughout. When you build a wonder a short video plays. Winning or losing the game will also generate a video segment, but I thought these were, surprisingly, of lower quality than the wonder movies.
Sounds are as nice as the graphics.
Each unit type has a variety of different responses to being selected, all of which are well done. Background music plays from the CD and is of a high quality and is pretty varied. Battle sound effects are also good, with different units having their own distinct attack and death sounds. All in all the game is technically quite good. The manual on the other hand is a bit disappointing.