Age of Empires 2 CD Protection. HELP!!!

[amorpheus]

I have an original AoE 2 CD which I want to back up and I also want to be able to play off the hard drive.

Firstly, I have found a patch for playing without the CD, but I don't know what version of AoE 2 I have (there are about 3 patches for it). How do I find out?

To back up the CD- I have found that AoE 2 uses SafeDisc v.2 for CD protection. How do I get rid of this protection? Is there a patch that does it for me, or is it more complicated than that?