Although, if you're planning on making (another) remake of a Quake3 map, people are probably be less inclined to play it unless you have a substantial amount of differences/improvements.
It's usually better (and easier) to come up with your own layout and work from there. wviperw wrote a good Competitive Design Guide that you should read, though it's written for the CPMA mod, fundamentally, it really applies to all multiplayer games:
http://www.promode.org/maps/guide/
If you're decompiling id Software's maps so that you can get a good understanding of how to map, just be aware that they weren't the "cleanest" mappers since they were constantly under pressure to get things done. Plus, they were the first to use the tools and the community has since expanded greatly on our knowledge of the proper mapping techniques.
For example, looking at the sample maps, their use of hint brushes were placed in places that were somewhat less than optimal. I'm sure they would have done things differently if they knew what we know today.
That said, also check out Q's Sample Map Thread to learn about map optimization:
http://www.quake3world.com/ubb/Archives ... 20488.html?
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