Pages
They mean you should send the first five pages of your manuscript. Period. As long as it's easily readable, it doesn't matter in the least whether you use Courier, Times, or Ariel. No matter what font you use, never go smaller than 12.
If you're using a professional level e-mail program, as the agent or editor almost certainly is, it will keep format in e-mails, and you can send perfectly formatted e-mail pages, if you like.
Just because you e-mail yourself something in no way means you're seeing it the same way an agent or editor will, unless you have the same e-mail program they're using, which is probably Outlook.
Proper format is often for e-mail, and while it doesn't matter much with five sample pages, it can matter a great deal when you send a completed work be e-mail. One of the big reasons MS Office is the standard is because Outlook can send and receive formatted e-mails, and editors don't have to spend eons reformatting something.