Yes it is, be lucky if you can find a new one somewhere (it uses the non-chipped BCI-6/BCI-3eBk carts !!!). Otherwise get a second hand version, which has been kept in good condition.
They developed newer, faster printers and some would argue that they also found ways to tie people into their consumables so they ditched the older chipless designs and moved on.
Epson, HP, Lexmark, etc... are no exception... they've all moved their technology forward further.. Oh and it's worth noting too that most of these inkjet printers aren't really made to last much longer than a year or so with their waste ink tanks so they're expecting you to upgrade and move on to the newer models and so on.