IIS 6 gives 404 error for custom HTTP Handler, how to resolve this issue?

Hello,

My apologies if I am posting this under a wrong forum.

I am working on a legacy Web Application based on C#.Net 2.0 and deployed on to IIS 6.0 under Class 2.0 .Net Application Pool.

I have developed an HCH that implements IhttpAsyncHandler.

Fully qualified class path is MyWebApp.Handlers.UCT.HCH

The class file is under Handlers folder which is under the main web application folder called MyWebApp, so full path is C:\MyWebApp\Handlers\UCT\HCH.ashx.cs)

Note: I am not using App_Code folder as suggested here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228090.aspx

My Web.conf has the following entries

<configuration>

      <!--IIS 6.0-->

      <system.web>

      <httpHandlers>

        <add

                  path="MyPage.MyExt"

                  verb="*"

                  type="MyWebApp.Handlers.UCT.HCH"

                  validate="true"           

        />

      </httpHandlers>

      </system.web>

      <!--IIS 7.0-->

      <system.webServer>

            <handlers>       

                  <add

                        name="MyPage_MyExt"

                        path="MyPage.MyExt"

                        verb="*"

                        type="MyWebApp.Handlers.UCT.HCH"

                        modules="IsapiModule"

                        scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll"

                        resourceType="Unspecified"

                        preCondition="bitness32"

                  />

            </handlers>

      </system.webServer> 

</configuration>

On my local machin I am using IIS 7 and my handler is working fine. However when application get deployed in test environment which runs IIS 6, I get HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found. When I try to load my handler

Questions:

Any idea on how to resolve this issue?

Is it must to use APP_Code folder?