How large could a private server get,and what's the largest?

[Turrican_Man]

I am unclear about a few things..

Well first off let me say that when I found out about EQemu I was really excited, because I always wanted to play EverQuest but did not want to pay monthly fees.

But when I started trying to play on private servers, to my disappointment there are never more than thirty people online at once, and the gameplay is unbalanced- alligator skins sell for 80 platinum, and easy enemies give ridiculous drops that have no level requirements (scorpius2k comes to mind).

First of all, is it impossible for a private server to accommodate hundreds of people, because a personal computer doesn't have enough power?

Second of all, is the issue about power or is it just that not very many people know about EQemu, or want to play on it?

I guess I was expecting a private server experience that could compare to Sony's EQ experience (like the private servers for Ragnarok Online, which are easily as good as the pay ones imo).

Thanks to all who inform me