A preasymptotic error analysis of the linear edge element method (EEM) and $H(curl)$-conforming interior penalty edge element method (CIP-EEM) for the time-harmonic Maxwell equation in three dimensional space is derived. Preasymptotic error estimates for both EEM and CIP-FEM are derived under the mesh condition that $k^3 h^2$ is sufficiently small. Numerical tests are provided to verify our theoretical results and to illustrate the great capability of CIP-{EEM} in reducing the pollution effect.