Forget about what Hyperterminal wants for a minute, because basically, Hyperterminal doesn't want anything. You tell Hyperterminal what you want. Hyperterminal is only going to read what the serial port sends it at the baud rate and format YOU select in Hyperterminal, which in turn, sets the serial port to transmit/receive.

The PBP manual does a fairly decent job of explaining why, generally speaking, a MAX232 chip is not needed when using PICs (or most MCUs for that matter).
If the voltage levels coming into the serial port from the PIC without a level converter (MAX232) happen to fall within that serial port's high and low voltage specifications (which can and does ocassionally vary between manufacturers) levels, then, all else being equal, everything should work. If they don't, it won't.