I didn't think the AI on beginner was that fast, but I'll take your word for it. To get a feel for pacing, I recommend you try the following:
1. Tell your seed to start building one engineer.
2. Tell your first engineer to build your base's metal extractors. Use shift to queue orders for it.
3. When the engineer you built comes out, have it make a factory.
4. When the factory is done, have it build say 8 scout groups.
5. Every pair of scout groups (6 units), send that group to a different adjacent region. After all 8 groups are out, that gives you 4 groups to expand Until all regions are taken.
That's it, basically. While expanding you need to also build your economy and also start building forces for fighting your enemy. But at least the steps above will help you not lose quickly on victory points.
