It's better to have a small pc, maybe even without fans, to run the server. Less power consumption, less heat, less noise. It costs almost nothing anyway, you don't need a case/keyboard/ect on it, a small pc with a 0,6-1,6ghz processor and 256-512 ram is more than enough for a nwserver. (I don't recommend 166mhz, I did run nwserver on that, but GodSpire sized things really need more)
About linking the servers. It's a nice idea, but it would be even better if it wasn't centralized on 1 single server. If that one goes down, then all links are gone at once. Each server should make it's own little hall of portals and link to the other servers that participate.
Btw, 420, you want to replace gamespy by something better? (probably your ultimate dream, you don't like lamespy I think
)
-Mel