Command And Conquer - Generals / Zero Hour

I wanted to play an old game i had which was a ton of fun. Command and Conquer Generals. (with Zero Hour expansion) 

So i pop in the CD. enter my CD keys and the multiplayer doesn't work. Naturally i have to use Origins. So i go log onto Origins and begin entering my CD keys. 

Red Alert 2 works just fine. Code is accepted. I go on to install Generals, and Zero Hour, and the codes don't work on origins. 

So iIm really booting up this old game to play multiplayer which is read is still pretty active. But my CD can't connect to the multiplayer servers, and the origin servers that can won't recognize my key. 

I really don't want to buy the same games I'm literally holding in my hand. To me that feels an awful lot like a bait and switch. Granted its an old game. But the games on my disk, are literally for sale on origins. Under a different name now. (ultimate collection) instead of The First Decade. 

The manual says they're all property of EA, and support tells me they're Sunset. (they're old.) In which i reply... Why does battlefield 1942 and Battlefield bad company work fine? They're older than Generals. Neither are updated. That doesn't seem to make much sense. 

Really wish someone could help me out. I want to play the game, but i refuse to buy the same exact game a full second time, because they launched origins. That kind of money grabbing will make a guy never play EA again. At any time, we can just open a new server, and you have to pay again for the same product you bought from us. 

What is that? Anyone have any ideas?