"D'Entrecasteaux" was initially deployed to Indochina, where she took part in Eight-Nation Alliance operations during the Boxer Uprising, including the Battle of the Taku Forts in June 1900. Problems with her guns forced her to return to France for repairs in 1903, though she returned to Indochina for another tour from 1905 to 1909. She was modernized in 1909–1912 and served as the flagship of the Training Squadron until the start of World War I in July 1914. The ship spent much of the war in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where she assisted in the defense of the Suez Canal from Ottoman attacks and patrolled the coast of Ottoman Syria. She was transferred for operations elsewhere after 1916, including supporting Arab rebels in the Red Sea and escorting convoys in the Indian Ocean.