I just got my CD Key for EE1 and AoC. Now I am at a dilemma, how exactly do I put it in? I sent this question to support but it took nearly 2 weeks to get my key and I dont want to wait that long if its something as simple as editing a config file

No, your correct with your first idea it should ask for it after you click multiplayer and then play on the internet. Unless gog removed that and I don't see why they would.

No, it is required for LAN games and thats why I sent off a request for the key. Im not able to play LAN without it

Have you tried going to multiplayer internet and then putting the cd key into that when asked to do so. Then get back out of that and see if the game now has your cd key for lan?

I've done some more poking around in the registry, but the most I've come up with is an entry called CDKeys under "HKEY_LOCAC_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Sierra", which contains keys "EEAOC" and "EmpireEarth", but both are in hexadecimal (as far as I can tell).
So, I think your best bet *is* sending an inquiry to support and wait for an answer.

Sooo... have you spent a message to support or did you mange to get the key right by yourself?
Or did you give up on it?

Sent a message to support. No reply yet. Now way I am giving up on this. Multiiplayer was always one of my fav parts of this game ever

I don't think you should give up on it; it may take a loooong time to get an answer, but it will arrive eventually. Then, you'll be able to play MP.

Yeah, and then no one else will have to do this

Over a month later and no response. Anyone new in the community with an answer?

What you need to do is go into your empire earth folder and edit the file WONlobby.cfg then change the value CDKeyCheck from true to false. This will allow you to play LAN games.

Thank you so much for this temporary solution (I am in Hawaii right now and wont actually be able to test for about a week).
I still would like to find out how to make this actually work for, say, GameRanger

Maybe send a new message to the staff. They get usually flooded with suppoer requests, so maybe yours got lost in that myriad of messages.
Also, there was once a bug with the software that marked even unanswered requests/questins as closed.

This method works with the Save-EE lobby client. Since the servers which used to check your key for online play are down it no longer matter what CD key you use.