Hey everyone im new..Help me out!!

[FireFly]

So ive been looking to sink my teeth into Everquest for awhile now but all of my friends warned me to stay away from the official server. They said the game developer fucked the game up royally and the only way to truly experience Everquest in its glory is to play the classic version at project 1999. My question is, after i download Everquest from TPB and mount the cd. what do i do next? Do i just install the game and then apply the project 1999 patch before i open the client? Im guessing that if i open the client after install it will auto patch to the live servers. Correct?