If you have an iPhone, switch to EDGE for something roughly approximating the dialup experience. (I think it's a bit faster, but they're in the same ballpark.)
But AFAIK EDGE almost never gets anywhere close to its theoretical speed limit while 56k modems are usually very close, so in practice EDGE might be something like 50-100% faster.
until my grandparents passed away their entire use for "the internet" was AOL and that only to receive pictures of their grandchildren. I think I may have some other older relatives who use the net and/or AOL simply for email.