The servers I'd personally recommend are:
PRTA, or MeRk(19:00-01:00 GMT approx)
and
CIA (21:00-04:00 GMT approx)
You might have to bare with a few old PR salts who "aint got time to bleed" or play it slow, but start off small and get the grips for Infantry and land vehicles first. I wouldnt touch rotary or fixed wing unless your comfortable with it after practice in Coop, a Training server or a private LAN server. More complex than standard BF2. Besides, it helps to know how infatry and armour think when your engaging them from the air

.
Acknowledge some squad leaders / commanders want you to follow orders to a T, while others might not want to lead at all. Reading
individual server rules helps not getting banned for "stealing assets" or "attacking out of bounds".
Pretty much everyone whos fun to play with uses the
Mumble VoIP software that comes with PR in the install. You wont find many people using BF2's VoIP, as mumble lets you talk to other squadleaders (if you are one), the commander, everyone in the squad your in, or even the soldiers on your team right next to you (local chat).
Run it as administrator to make it work!
This mod has been out for a while, so expect lots of players using acronyms in txt and over comms.
INF= Infantry
AT= Anti Tank
HAT= heavy Anti tank
AA/AAA =anti air
SL = Squad Leader
And other standard western military abbreviations.
See if you can get someone to explain grid refs, but more specifically the 'key-pad' subdivisions within them.
You might hear dudes shouting "enemy a 210!", which simply refers to the compass baring at the bottom of your screen.
Good luck Yontz! Hope you bring lots of bros to the fight.
...mongol...