Unfortunately there are 2 problems with UT2004, stemming from 1 problem;
The owner of the game (legal or cracked).
Many people don't realise their cracked copy or key, will not let them connect to the servers. (idiots)
Many people don't realise they have to wait for a while until the master-server responds with the list. (total idiots)
Either way, they quickly swap over to botmatch mode, and never visit a forum to find out what the problem is. (total, double-idiots)
The most common question you will see in the chat is "How do I play" or "where are the games" etc.
I tell them to wait. It usually fills the server list if they chat for a while.
You can see how many players are connected if you join the chat room with a normal IRC program.
There are plenty joining all the time, but most just never wait long enough.
When someone like me is brave, or bored enough, we sit in the IRC and catch these new players and tell them to wait.
Then more people are online playing (hooray!)
I have a section of 2K4 resources at "Your Unreal"
http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/ut2004
This also has links to find you more servers.
There is some activity at Beyond Unreal, but it is mostly populated by people who don't play Unreal games (complete morons)
Join the EPIC games forums. It is moderated better.
http://forums.epicgames.com/forums/249- ... -2003-2004
If you watch my news-feed page, you can see lots of modding and mapping for 2K4 (more than UT99)
Hermskii's house is one of the last-bastions of Chaos. He runs Chaos for UT99 and 2K4.
http://hermskii.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=24
http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/ ... .101:7787/