How is that so old compared to some others? ICQ was released before AOL and I used that like a maniac during school and while gaming.
And what was that old 90's software that first emulated LAN for online playin multi-player games. Everyone in the community had it and it was the real beginning of something huge - started with a "K" I think.
I hated aol because they tried to control what you could and could not see or do, the idea was to restrict you to their ecosystem, much like Facebook does now. It will be their downfall too one day.
In fact I used to work at AOL in the early 2000's right after the Time Warner merger. I started in dial-up support then quickly moved to broadband / satellite support and then became a team leader. I taught a bunch of other techs how to use Windows XP at the time since I had been using the beta version for quite a while.
The writing was already on the wall then. You could tell that the company was heading in the wrong direction.
I remember the best thing was when I discovered a dialup ISP called FlashNet in Fort Worth, TX - the freedom from AOL was wonderful, nothing special, just a barebones dial up connection and some free hosting space without jumping through the AOL hoops.
Remember the days when your personal hosting space was something like www.flash.net/~username ?