new player it_the_clown

hi im lewis just bought the game this Christmas just wondering how many players play this online and if theres any clans to join let me know

I also need a base qe if anyone has one spare

Hi Lewis.

Welcome.
Unfortunately you haven't really chosen the best time to join Quake 3. It isn't very alive anymore.
I really can't tell how many players are left, but according to stats there should be at least a few 1000, but many of these players don't play often or just came to have a look.
You can find all my servers of the main page http://q3pwnz.org
If you want to try servers of different hosts you can look at the following link:
http://www.gametracker.com/search/q3/?search_by=server_variable&search_by2=protocol&query=43&loc=_all&sort=&order=
That link displays all servers of this quake 3 version/point release. (version 1.11-1.16, the version you are playing now.)
There really aren't any clans or clan wars anymore. In general these days most games are all public.

I really have no idea what a "base qe" is, so I can't help you with that

a base qe is a place that stores your binds and names such as /bind m say lol and presss m in game that says lol and it also saves your controls saves putting them in each time you connect

Oh your config...
Start with getting the NoGhost client side mod @ http://noghost.net/modfiles/1.16/NoGhost_Client_beta.zip
Just unzip it in baseq3.

cg_enemyModel keel/pm
cg_enemyColors 2222
cl_maxpackets 100
com_maxfps 125
rate 25000
snaps 40

That should give you a solid start.
Also adjust cg_fov to your liking. 90 is default but most players have between 100 and 120.
And adjust sensitivity to your liking.

I hope that helps.