So get an uncracked version. I was looking for one a while ago after my disc broke, and it took me 5 trys to find a CD image that didn't have a bunch of bypassing junk I didn't need on there (since I had a real serial), since the bypassing stuff makes you have an "unrecognized game version" when you try and connect to the main server.
Clean copies are out there somewhere, though, if you look hard enough.