I managed to snag this game on the Insomnia sale for peanuts and I am very excited to play it.

But I am confused about the patch situation. Should I be using Upatch 1.4 or the MP patch (whatever that is) or both? Any other "standard" patches/mods I should be using?

Note: I will be playing against the CPU almost exclusively.

Thanks for any advice!

Not sure if you're still waiting for an answer, but you'll find the races more balanced with Upatch 1.4 and more of the user created maps available with the patch as well. It adds lots of units and map effects amongst other things. But you don't technically need it, so 100% your choice. For multiplayer (PBEM), you'll want it since it's considered the norm and most multiplayer games use user created maps.