It is still the most popular, but that helps a bit. For example, Empire has two years and two months of gap between Empires:
02/07/2003
20:46:21 [51 Elf War] (Deleted) [EMPIRE] Darmok the Weaponsmaster, Bloodoath, Imperial
Age: 661, Hours: 318, Align: Evil, Ethos: Orderly, PK Ratio: 52%
12/30/2000
19:44:40 [47 Human Nec] (Deleted) [EMPIRE] Shamseddin the Spectre, Imperial Dreadlord
Age: 45, Hours: 228, Align: Evil, Ethos: Lawful, PK Ratio: 51%
Starting point of Fortress(I admit that adding in dawnies makes up for this difference for Fort):
02/03/2003
00:20:34 [51 Felar War] (Age-Death) [FORTRESS] Aliera e'Kieron the Weaponsmistress, Vete
Age: 92, Hours: 558, Align: Good, Ethos: Chaotic, PK Ratio: 83%
Starting point of Battle:
11/10/2000
22:45:49 [32 Arial Asn] (Deleted) [BATTLE] Azharkan the Koshi Garuma
Age: 23, Hours: 55, Align: n/a, Ethos: Chaotic