I no longer use AOL, but when I first got online I started with AOL. I think its a good ISP for beginners who don't know anything about computers or the Internet. It has some built in protections and I liked the idea of setting up separate screen names for my kids, with parental controls. (That means YOU have to control your kids' access, Parents! Not easy when they usually know more about the damned machines than we do!)
As I learned more about the internet, and about computers in general, and as my kids got old enough to be given more freedom, I switched over to high speed, and have never looked back. But for newbies I still think AOL is a good place to start. You can even get high speed AOL.