2001 Ford escort starts and then dies?

[geoff]

When I start my car up it starts and then dies, when I press the gas upon start up it revs but as soon as I let the gas go it dies down. If the car actually stays running the car shakes violently and acts like it wants to die down. I also found out that there wasn't any oil at all and that it leaked out. There isn't any knocking in the engine so we're thinking that the engine is fine we are going to check the timing belt. If you have any other advice, please help. Thank you