I was 13 when I started playing, so age definitely isn't a problem.

Anyways, yeah. The basic subscription would be your way to go. I did that in the beginning when I started playing.. then I gradually changed to gifted.

It is challenging thing to do when you don't have your own income, though.. I if anyone surely knows that. D: I've had to cancel my subby millions of times.

Maybe you should wait for Vista client, indeed. Or at least make a demo account and see how things are right now. See if you really are up to playing it. If you're there just for the dragons, it might end up being a wrong decision. I mean, I've resubbed many times simply because I missed my dragons, then when I finally got there, I realized I didn't really have anything to do in the game rather than just help people and sit around. (or make a new dragon and play with that one, but.. I've just been too darn busy lately to do even that. XD )