If you're not dropping clients or crashing servers, I wouldn't worry about it.
Zoning is not part of the 'normal gameplay' experience, in that it's a very limited action in terms of what gameplay actually is.
To log a client into the game, or to change zones, sends an immense amount of data at one time. This, obviously, increases the communication requirements
on a per-client basis.
PEQ uses the same server code as what is available for download for private servers.
http://www.eqemulator.org/index.php?...nfo&worldid=55
As of that posting, there are 442 players online - showing a max of 955 players.