For compact orientable manifolds, this is accomplished by the notion of a [spectral triple](https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/spectral%20triple). See the question https://mathoverflow.net/questions/191720/commutative-spectral-triples for additional information, including a [precise statement](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/191720/commutative-spectral-triples/191743#191743) of the theorem. See also the answer to https://mathoverflow.net/questions/16833/noncommutative-smooth-manifolds/117813#117813 for additional remarks about orientability. As a side remark, if one is willing to use smooth functions instead of continuous functions, then there is a very satisfactory answer: the resulting contravariant functor from second countable Hausdorff smooth manifolds to commutative real algebras is a fully faithful functor, i.e., manifolds are (contravariantly) identified with a full subcategory of real algebras. This is known as [Milnor's exercise](https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/embedding+of+smooth+manifolds+into+formal+duals+of+R-algebras).