Never accept original release dates, especially when it's a port, and not a simultaneous release, in question.
Actually, from what I can gather, House Party doesn't seem as good as Livin' Large anyway. In fact, I found that The Sims as a whole got boring after maybe 10 hours total play time... as opposed (or is it apposed?) to something like Diablo II, which is still stealing hour after after hour after hundreds of hours of play!
If SimCity3000 wasn't such a piss-poor port, I'm sure it would also suck away hour after hour after hour...