Are you SERIOUSLY , using abc logic in naruto?
1) Has hiruzen fought madara already? Does he know ANYTHING about madara's abilities? does he have knowledge of his fighting style, anything?
What's the difference between fighting madara and hashirama?
Well ,1 ) Hiruzen was TAUGHT by hashirama, knows ALL his jutsu , his style of fighting, and every other possible thing that could be used in the fight...
Just because hiruzen can beat hashirama, does not mean he can beat madara..
Just like just because gai can beat kisame, and kakashi can possibly beat gai, it doesn't mean kakashi can beat kisame..
Hiruzen was simply trained by the first and 2nd, and supposedly surpassed them boths in ninjtusu, taijutsu and genjutsu.. he's just better than them...
The edo tensei's weren't even weaker.. they look weaker because of the change from part 1 to part 2.... Orochimaru's edo tensei's were perfected..., power levels just changed.. which is how flower world etc came into play... back in part 1 , tobirama's biggest feat was spitting water from his mouth and making a water jutsu.. which had orochimaru and the anbu people in awe...
Now i can call like 100 ninjas who did that exact same thing in part 2...
I've said already if kishi rewrote that, it would be different of course.. But it's the feat you have to look at... Old hiruzen still bested 2 perfected Edo tensei's.... that's like kakashi going up against edo muu and mizukage, without them speaking and telling him their weaknesses