If the statements made by DICE are to be believed, and they should be, a new patch for Battlefield 2 may be just around the corner. The 1.5 patch is said to begin open testing at some point before Christmas.
We have spent time looking into the attacks and implemented short term solutions with the help of GameSpy to limit the impact of stats padding and leaderboard abuse. Other issues have been found to be game and server based, which is where Update 1.50 comes in. what Battlefield 2 1.50 will contain a number of security updates, including the following:

Server crashing - We have worked with the issues causing servers to crash, which has caused problems for the community (especially those who rent ranked servers).
Name/ID spoofing - Extra steps have been implemented to ensure the soldier being used belongs to the right account.
Commander assets - This is to stop the excessive spawning of multiple crates, UAVs or vehicles.
Note that the patch will hopefully begin testing before Christmas, nothing is set in stone just yet. We'll have more details as they're made available.

Do many people still play Battlefield 2?

Me and bucky play it on a regulair basis