@dwhalen: I think your version is simply to old. MSN is a closed protocol. That's why a third party (Microsoft) can change the protocol any time they like. AFAIK, that is the reason why old versions of Kopete doesn't work any more. More information about MSN and Kopete can be found at
http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Kopete+MSN . That page also have a workaround if you can't upgrade.
@Radio999: Maybe there is some usefull information on that page for you either.