No it wasn't. Here's a short list of monsters in Act 1 that could easily one or two-shot you:
- Treehead Woodfist
- Andariel
- Rakanishu
- the Smith
- Griswold
- any random Champion with a certain set of affixes
Admit it: D2 Act 1 was way, way, WAY more diffucult than D3 Act 1. Skeleton king in D3 can only kill you if you go afk for a minute.