Start with the User Guide. There are a couple of tutorials on rendering. Most AE comps are a few seconds, not a few minutes because After Effects is not a video editing app. Newbies keep trying to use it as an NLE, but it is designed to create visual effects and motion graphics that cannot be created in an NLE like Premiere Pro. More than 90% of my projects are documentaries and feature films with hundreds, sometimes thousands of shots. Some of my movies have hundreds of visual effects and motion graphics in them, but almost all of my AE comps are under seven seconds and one shot because trying to edit in After Effects is incredibly cumbersome and difficult.
As for the render time, I just rendered a 7-second shot that took one hour and 45 minutes. I admit that it was a very complex shot with a bunch of 3D layers, lights, shadows, fog, motion blur, and a bunch of other things, but two hours for several minutes in an AE comp may be a very reasonable render time.
If we knew a lot more about your system, your workflow, your comp, and your render settings we could be of more help. Until you have a very good understanding of video standards, frame sizes, compression system, and frame rates, it is a very good idea to keep your fingers off the knobs and just use the presets.
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