Please Help having trouble with new game

[jshall]

I just got Civ 3 and I really loved civ 2. But Im having a really hard time adjusting to the new game.

Can someone please explain to me how I can start trading? I have absolutely no idea and the manual doesnt really help a whole lot.

Also how to I harvest resources? I see them adjacent to my cities but in my trade advisors say I have none. I discover horse back riding but cant build the horse units. What gives?

And how the heck can I get my technology advancing faster? I seem to start out fast get to the middle ages and then everyone moves past me?

[BKWM]

To harvest the resources you have to build a road on them and connect them to your cities. if they are outside your cities borders then you have to sacrifice a worker to build a colony to get the resource. I never played Civ 2 so I don't know how they did trading in it. In Civ 3 you go to the foriegn advisor and select the other civ you want to trade with and it will bring up a window, where you can trade with them, but to trade resources you have to have a trade route between your empires.