It is not your problem.
I'm sure that computers and internet connections today are far more powerfull that anything running in year ~2000...
The server and client are slow cause they were written that way.
No one adjusted the programs to the reality of today. And no one will. It has became a classic.
The programs, for example, have some explicit delays before taking a action, like moving into a hex (10 seconds delay!).
Back in those days, with a dial connection of ~28kbits, and a 400mhz computer with 64mb ram, that would make sense. The programs would need a delay to syncronize things up. So we can't blame them.
But today it looks slow, rigth?
The problem is that the game didn't changed in the last 16 years!
So, it is as slow as it was in 2000.