Close enough, they're likely trying to get eyes on the recently released Mega Man X Dive Offline, kind of a pay once archived version of the original gacha game with everything accessible. Said original was terminated not too long ago.
They fill a similar narrative role, but they are not the same character. Protoman is from the original MegaMan games, and is Dr. Light's first humanoid robot (The "First Son of Light"). The "pre-MegaMan". He mostly went around being cool, soloing stuff, and occasionally helping MegaMan.
Zero is in the MegaMan X series, which takes place "a long time later". He is one of Dr. Wily's last designs, who got put into hibernation until the events of MegaMan X, and is one of the central figures in the Maverick Hunters. He mostly went around being cool, soloing stuff, and partnering up with MegaMan X. Also he went into hibernation again and woke up to his own really good game series.
Very different. I don't really know how to refute that because I've never considered Protoman and Zero to be connected at all. They're both red, I guess.
Edit: huh! Wily based Zero's design off of Protoman.