When you set up a game, you can choose which victory types you want enabled.
Will the AI ever attempt to achieve a victory type that is disabled?
For instance, if the only victory type that is enabled is domination, will every AI player attempt to go the military route and crush all other players?
My singleplayer gameplay experience suggest that all of the AI players aren't trying for all-out war.
Technically speaking, disabling most victory conditions makes even attempting them impossible. Turning off space race makes it so the Apollo Program is no longer buildable. Likewise turning off cultural and diplomatic vortories will disable the Utopia Project and UN respectively. Simply put, the AI will not attempt it because it cannot.
Victory conditions aside, the science, culture, and diplomcay mechanics still provide useful advantages, and the AI will pursue them based on what it perceives to be the best strategic option at the time. The personality of the leader is also a factor, which is why some civs may not seem to be gearing up for battle, or why an aggressive nation will still go to war even if domination is turned off.
Although I didn´t know that some buildings would be totally disabled, a domination victory obviously doesn´t require you to start building an army early. Especially getting technologies and therefore better units faster than enemies (and also stockpiling gold to build up a massive army in ~10 Turns) is a viable strategy, because the more eras you are in advance, the better your units. After all, onehits can occur one era in advance with the right counter unit and will be (almost) certain with three eras in advance.
