Completed in 1904, Amiral Aube joined her sister ships in the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord).

The ship was reactivated at the beginning of 1914 and was assigned to the 2nd Light Squadron (2e Escadre légère), as the units based in northwestern France had been renamed, together with two of her sisters.

The Gloire-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Gueydon class by Emile Bertin.

Amiral Aube had four-cylinder engines fed by 28 Belleville boilers that were designed to produce a total of 20,500 metric horsepower (15,100 kW) intended to give them a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).

The cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of 6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[2] The main battery of the Gloire class consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 194 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in single-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure.

Together with her sisters Condé and Gloire, Amiral Aube escorted the remains of John Paul Jones from France to Annapolis, Maryland, in April 1906 and then went on to visit New York City.

Amiral Aube rejoined the 1st Cruiser Division by October[12] and participated in the Quebec Tercentenary in Canada the following July.

[15] The division was deployed to the Mediterranean for training in mid-1911 and the ship participated in the fleet review by the President of France, Armand Fallières, off Toulon on 4 September.

The constant patrolling caused a lot of wear and tear on the ship's propulsion machinery and she required frequent repairs until she was sent to Brest for a refit in March 1916.

Two months later, after another reorganization, Amiral Aube and all of her sisters were assigned to the 3rd DL which was tasked with patrolling the West Indies in search of German commerce raiders.

The division was tasked with escorting convoys bound for Europe from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands beginning on 15 February 1918.

[18] After the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, Amiral Aube was sent to North Russia to support the Allied intervention there.