Try turning the graphics down if your lagging. I run it with 1gb of ram and its fine.
Dont be quite so quick to blame problems on the software, and ask in the EQ2 fourms, someone will answer or one of the dev's will most likely answer.
Actually the population is growing. If you started a new char you'll see that all the servers are on a medium load, and one I belive is on a high load.
Seems that you were just on at an off time.