You mean you get that far that CPU matters without some random catastrophe waltzing through your empire like you were dust?

play on a large map with lots of civilizations, doesn't take long.

add multiplayer into the mix for an even worse experience.

Fair enough. My friend and I play relatively small galaxies and both have somewhat beefy processors, so we haven't really noticed it slowing down outside the "hey where'd the weekend go" amounts of time it consumes.