As I'm sure many here would point out, another solution would be to ditch the official AIM client (which sucks) and use
Adium. It is a third party AIM client (that also works with other IM services, like MSN messenger) that has a nicer interface and far more fun features than AOL's official OS X AIM client. When I first started using OS X a few years ago, I posted with a similar problem. I was pointed to Adium (which has come a long way from then) and have never looked back.