Running GAE 0.3 on Ubuntu 10.04, playing as Magic. The only thing unusual is that I changed my team color to orange.
1. Research properly displays costs in its tooltip, but they don't actually cost anything at all. I could easily research all three Library items with only about 40 gold in the bank.
2. Death animations seem to sometimes play at instantaneous speed, or the unit disappears immediately upon death. I noticed this with Archers, Swordmen, and Horsemen when being killed by my Battle Mages and Initiates. Dying Archmages seemed to fade out normally, though.