  We report on a contrasting behavior of the in-plane and out-of-plane
magnetoresistance (MR) in heavily underdoped antiferromagnetic (AF)
YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} (x<0.37). The out-of-plane MR (I//c) is positive over most of
the temperature range and shows a sharp increase, by about two orders of
magnitude, upon cooling through the Neel temperature T_N. A contribution
associated with the AF correlations is found to dominate the out-of-plane MR
behavior for H//c from far above T_N, pointing to the key role of spin
fluctuations in the out-of-plane transport. In contrast, the transverse
in-plane MR (I//a(b);H//c) appears to be small and smooth through T_N, implying
that the development of the AF order has little effect on the in-plane
resistivity.
