I'm not sure how you have your system set up at home, but another possible solution could be this:

You could hookup your laptop to your stereo and connect to your empeg through ether from your laptop - then you could download the m3u for your playlists via http (if you have hijack installed). Then, you can stream from your peg with Winamp. That way there's no way your friends can mess anything up on your empeg or your laptop if they're only interfacing with Winamp.

EDIT: You only have to d/l the m3u once. But any time you add new songs to the empeg you'll want to re-download it to have a current playlist for Winamp.

- trs