Latest MS XP Security patch breaks all multiplayer games?

This is more of a question than a proclamation.

I have Windows XP and I downloaded the latest security patches this weekend. Afterwards I noticed that Quake4 would "ping test" the first 200 servers and then begin lagging. When I would click "refresh list" it would fail to successfully ping any of the servers.

If I restarted Quake4, it would be fine for the first 200 servers and then crap out again. Also, if I tried to connect to a server, it would connect but my connection was dead.

I then created a shortcut which launched Quake4 with the connect parameter and an IP address. It connected fine.

I had a theory. In an effort to thwart Denial of Service attacks from infected PCs, Microsoft may have put new code into WINSOCK that flags any process that makes more than say.. 200 internet socket connections within 5 seconds as malicious and disables socket access to the program.

I tested this with Gamespy and found the same thing. When it starts up it is fine, but if I try to refresh any of my lists, after a while all ping requests begin failing.

My question is: Has anyone else experienced this? It occures to me that it may be an ISP issue. (But if it was my service provider, I would think that all programs would stop working. However, only the program that tries to perform massive ping operations breaks which leads me to believe it is an OS issue).

Please dont respond unless you know you have the latest XP security patches.