You can still get to the forums, where they thankfully have a notice about what's going on (I was doing an SC when I got dumped, thought it might be on my end until I saw this notice) -- http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board?board.id=bug_1-3-1

"Update - 3:07PM EDT: We have isolated the issue to a problem with our ISP. We are working aggressively with Verizon to resolve the problems we're encountering with their services. We currently have no ETA at this time, thank you.

Greetings!

We are currently investigating issues impacting all games services and websites outside of these forums.

We are working to restore service as soon as possible as we investigate the cause of these issues and appreciate your patience and cooperation. Thank you and stay tuned for additional information!

- The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Team"

It's not just new players, the client tries to connect every time it launches, if it can't it just hangs for a while and then you get an error message.