I knew about the 'gaming zone' but at the time I played multiplayer across serial (shoutout to radioshack having everything I needed). A few years later when we got broadband, I just used direct IP. Still working today, no hassle other than either port forwarding or setting a vpn between machines. Will take direct IP every time over Live or other services that will eventually die (hello Gamespy; at least I can use a hex editor to use 3rd party GS servers).