Whats changed since 2004?

I stopped playing in November of 2004, and it's been 10 years since I've played AC. "If" i were to boot up my old character again, what should I know? For example:

- Is my original character still available, or did the developers purge old data?
- Is Moringthaw still a server?
- I played the original game, and the first extension pack - I briefly played AC 2 but gave up on it, do I need to run out and buy more products to play AC and catch up with the current game image?
- Is the UI still old and funky or have there been significant upgrades?
- Is the level cap still level 256 or did they raise it?

Thanks in advance!