Ok thank you. I guess I was just trying to overthink things.
I'll give the run down on everything I'm doing to make it easier for others in my situation (when they search the forums, like good little newbies should

)
1.) I moved the contents of the folder containing all my SoE Live compatible files over to a different directory (from 'C:/Program Files/Sony/Everquest/' to 'C:/Program Files/Sony/EQLIVELAWLROFL')
2.) then ran the 'Repair' tool from the titanium discs .. this, I am assuming, reverted the 'C:/Program Files/Sony/Everquest/' files back to their titanium versions
3.) I did the necessary eqhost changes (which didn't work right away - it wouldn't let me save the changed eqhost.txt file! I actually had to delete the file and make a new one with the correct eqemu address in it)
4.) I made the eqgame patchme shortcut on my desktop. Set the compatibilty mode to run as Windows Xp Service Pack 2 (I have vista which is very 'un-lol' sometimes, if I had to describe it with a br0sp34k word .. BUT it definitley runs most games much faster/better/smoother/awesomer than XP did.) Anyway..
From there I was able to get onto the server select screen but the game wont load from there.. I just have a blank black screen in the game window.
In case my dual core processor is to blame:
1.) I went to set the CPU affinity of eqgame.exe in the task mangler to CPU0.. but it was already set this way by default.
2.) I tried to download the AMD optimizer but the install for that failed. (I now realize I probably didn't 'run as administrator' when i should have, if my next course of action doesn't help I will try it again.
I've now deleted all the files in the directory i'm using for EqEmu and doing a full reinstall of Titanium just in case one of the 'live' associated files was mucking me up.
I'll repost once it's completely reinstalled and I give it another go trying to run the game.
Also, here are the specs to my computer, if one of these may be causing the problem:
Windows Vista SP1 (soon to be 64 bit version if I ever get unlazy and install it)
4400+ AMD64 X2 processor
OCZ 4GB DDR2-800 Ram (
http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail...temno=A4308304)
Nvidia 8600 GTS 256mb video card (
http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail...temno=A9602838)