Age of Empires II's maps aren't built into the game. Each one is a text file of rules, a random map script, read in order: land first (a patch for every player, the same size), then terrain (forests that keep off the starts), then objects. Some objects are thrown down by chance: extra gold far out, wolves, and hawks, which do nothing at all. As Ensemble's lead designer Greg Street put it in 2000, you can't predict "where that first gold mine is going to be".

Your start carries one line: set_place_for_every_player. In The Conquerors' scripts (2000), every player gets 7 gold mines 12 to 16 tiles from their Town Center, 6 berry bushes and 4 sheep at 10 to 12, 5 stone at 14 to 18. The distance is the rule; only the direction is chance. Ensemble's own guide: many of their maps "use the same amount of starting resources so that players know what to expect."

And the generator never tries twice: if a map runs out of room, what comes last goes missing. So stone comes after berries and gold. Their note in the script: "This is not ideal, but it is better than losing gold."

The map, the rings and the placements are our own simplified version of those rules, drawn in code; the Definitive Edition (2019) reworked its maps, so the numbers here are The Conquerors'.

Which map do you always pick?

Sources: Ensemble Studios, Random Map Scripting Guide (The Conquerors, 2000), with its annotated Coastal script; Greg Street, "Custom Random Map scripts" and "Random Map Scripting Q & A", Ensemble Studios Designer Journal, 2000; The Conquerors' Arabia.rms.
Sounds and music: our own, made in code.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Xbox Game Studios or World's Edge. Age of Empires is a trademark of Microsoft.