Everquest II vs Everquest? (PC)

Are there any Everquest players here? Several years ago I did try the EII "Trial of the Isle". At the time I was going at WoW pretty strong (played WoW for about 18 months) and EII at the time, did not impress me. But that was then. I'm kind of missing a good PVE MMO environment that allows mostly solo and small party action.

I'm considering doing one of the Everquest trials. The natural assumption is that EII would be the way to go because it is newer, but how does the original Everquest stand up game play wise? Here is a Free Trial Link.

Thanks!