do you got a game running on GFWL already? there have been people trying to play the game after having a GFWL update, some to v3.0, before installing the game. theres a complicated process to this all but i dont understand it. try to understand this:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproappcompat/thread/a9e029e0-197a-4e9c-8d2d-f4a08ec2e0ec
and yes, people do still play online. there are people who still make mods and maps for the game as well. i still play it.