Why doesn't Age of Mythology work in windowed mode?

I have a PC running Windows 7. I installed and play Age of Mythology and its expansion, the Titans. Since the computer I have is much, much more advanced than even the maximum supported graphics settings in AoM, and I often multitask, I want to run it in windowed mode.

As it is, the game runs in the center of the screen at the resolution I select, surrounded by a black border.

I have tried the following:

• Checking the "Windowed mode" box in the game's settings
• Hitting ALT-Enter while in the game
• Creating a shortcut and adding "-w" and "-windowed"
• Running it from the command line using "-w" and "-windowed"
• Running it in every available compatibility mode

None of these had the slightest effect, except ALT-Enter, which causes a momentary flicker during which I can see the outline of the window and the minimize/maximize/kill buttons in the top right.

Is there anything else I can do, or is it simply not possible? If not, can anyone tell me specifically why, in case it is a problem I can create a workaround for?

Solution 1:

At least on steam, Using ALT+ENTER does switch the game to windowed mode, but initially you will only be able to tell by the flicker you described. You must still change the screen size in settings to a smaller value to make use of windowed mode.