I still play it occasionally to this day. MoO2 is probably the better (certainly more complex) game but for some reason doesn't have the same charm as the first. The first one really sparked my imagination in a way that almost no other space scifi game has since...
The only one that gave me a similar feeling, albeit decades later, was Mass Effect. Though of course it's a completely different type of game but it triggered some of the same kinds of emotions for me, something i can only describe as "space wonder".