is this normal?

When i looked at ewido's analyzer functions i noticed a connection was being made to the following, i have traced down the ip to the following information.
I would very much like to know if it is normal for my computer to connect to this even though i never use this web mail service.

OrgName: MS Hotmail
OrgID: MSHOTM
Address: One Microsoft Way
City: Redmond
StateProv: WA
PostalCode: 98052
Country: US

NetRange: 64.4.0.0 - 64.4.63.255
CIDR: 64.4.0.0/18
NetName: HOTMAIL
NetHandle: NET-64-4-0-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.HOTMAIL.COM
NameServer: NS3.HOTMAIL.COM
NameServer: NS2.HOTMAIL.COM
NameServer: NS4.HOTMAIL.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 1999-11-24
Updated: 2003-06-27

TechHandle: MSFTP-ARIN
TechName: MSFT-POC
TechPhone: +1-425-882-8080
TechEmail: iprrms@microsoft.com

OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE231-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@microsoft.com

OrgTechHandle: MSFTP-ARIN
OrgTechName: MSFT-POC
OrgTechPhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgTechEmail: iprrms@microsoft.com

As you can see it states hotmail but i never and have used hotmail, is this a connection neccesary for windows xp to do?
And how does it connect when transferring information to hotmail? does it uses my internal mail capacities such as outlook? this i never use and registered with.

How can i remove outlook completely from my computer? since i don't use it it's more a liability then of use.
I have scanned my computer with housecall, the cleaner, trojanhunter and ewido security suite and nothing reports as a trojan, well ewido did but removed it.....it was a trojan dropper. And this was done before i noticed today the connection to the information above.
Could these programs missed any additional ones?

Thanks in advance guys