Now Zivan, remember the 'system failure' at the end of the first matrix? I believe that is what the architect was talking about.
oh shit.. no!! matrix again!
When Neo became "The One," the matrix began to break down. That's why the rebels freed more people in the last 6 months than they had in the prior 6 years.
errr... ok.. stop.
That is why the architect said that if Neo didn't rejoin the Matrix and disperse his code to the new matrix, everything and everyone would die.
In the first matrix, morpheus summed up what the matrix truly was. When we first saw the matrix, we believed he was strictly speaking about the actual virtual world.
you'll see...
However, I believe that the matrix is not the virtual world. I believe it's the virtual world + Zion.