Your patch notes are dated 2003, and refer to group XP that was changed in 2001, after the launch of Velious (the same patch changed ZEM and removed class-based penalties). We are not even to Kunark yet.
Here is the relevant note preceding the patch in 2001:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/edit...rs_letter.html
Note it mentions the prior group XP bonus:
"Our goal is to get people grouping earlier, and provide them enough of a bonus where they do not feel that they are losing ground during the learning process. We feel we can do this by doubling the grouping experience bonus and by scaling it up based on the size of the group.
Currently, the bonus is an additional 2% experience per group member, not counting the first one, leading to a maximum bonus of 10%."