Will, you are telling him to format his/her hard drive just because you read a review (ie: you haven't tried AOL yourself)?
Just go to control panel (start -> control panel), then click on add/remove programs. Click on America Online, and then click on uninstall. Once you've uninstalled it, you can go ahead and see if c:\America Online 7.0\ or whatever still exists, if so, just erase them.
I've been going on the internet since 1992...I don't like AOL since they try to keep you on their site, they sell your e-mail addresses, etc...but it's really not that bad. I actually used to keep up with current events because the welcome menu would put up interesting links. I also didn't like having to connect at 23 kbps consistently (yes, slower than 28.8)