Yes I think he does mean Rise of Legends, which will be spectacular. Technology vs Magic is such a cool theme.
Rise of Legends isn't really as turn based as Rise of Nations was, its just the Conquer the World campaign which makes it seem like a TBS. Its alot quicker than RoN(which I found too slow) and on playing the demo I think it will be alot better than RoN.
As for Civ IV, I think you should definitely get it. Its tons better than Civ 3, which I found too slow and I didn't like doing so much micro-ing each turn. Now instead of building numerous cities it helps to build fewer, but larger cities. There's also a religion system. A bit hectic at the beginning of the game where everyone tries to be the first founder of a religion(you can do that by researching the religion's respective upgrade).
Civ III I think was the worst in the series, and CivIV beats it in every single way. Its getting an expansion too, The Warlords, which should be a great addition to the game.