The thing is there is no coming back from the powerful and smart AI powered selection, removal, masking tools Photoshop provides now. Its like turning back to the stone age. From what I can see Photocraft they still uses the old contrast based heuristic methods just like Gimp and other old school software.  

You'll need a better CPU, GPU, more RAM, and faster storage, preferably an SSD. 0 A.D. might look like a game with tiny creatures and buildings on the screen, but they're actually 3D models, and every unit has its own AI. All of that takes quite a bit of CPU power and memory. I don't know all the technical details, but this game can be pretty demanding. However, the developers have done a good job of optimising it so that it can run even on older, low-end PCs. You'll be fine playing single-player matches against AI, but if you're planning to play multiplayer, you'll need a PC that can run the game at a speed comparable to that of other players. Most multiplayer players have gaming PCs. If your PC lags, some of them will get annoyed and might even start a smear campaign against you. I used to have a slower PC (I have a mid-range PC now, because I'm a poor guy), and some of the people who hated me back then still hate me. They kick me out of games, insult me, and so on. I don't really care about them anymore. I just enjoy this game, and that's why I'm still playing. I've been playing it for almost a decade now, I think.

So, it is ram that slows late game matches down? not the cpu getting overloaded?

I would recommend upgrading your RAM instead of/as well as your CPU. I did so and my computer went from lagging and burning up (16 gb) to able to run massive matches fine (42 gb).

Welcome @jamedavid! My gpu is integrated, so that probably won't help much. What cpu do you have?