Hi Lord Hornburg

Welcome

You do not have to register with EA to play shogun/WE online.
They no longer have a server running.
As Wilbo said, there is a FakeServer set up for people to play online though not many are online at any given time (depends who and when they log on)
To connect to the FakeServer you need to change the Internet.cfg file that is in your main dir.
To do this.....go to..program files..totalwar..shoguntotalwar/we..and you will see a list of folders and files. Look for the Internet.cfg or Internet file. Double left click to open it and change the ChatserverIPAddress to...
ChatserverIPAddress=212.238.194.39 and change the Chatserver Port to..
ChatserverPort=8793
It should ask you to save changes click yes.

Also, you will need the patch v1.02

Good Luck

Jochi