Well Escargot is bettter With 5.0 and later but with those versions(1-4) Escargot doesn’t realy work …NOTE ashley’s msn server was made in 2003(it’s old).So yeah Ashley’s MSN server is more stable.
I have an idea! MAYBE WE NEED MAKE TO THAT PEOPLE COULD CHAT FROM ESCARGOT TO ASHLEY OR ASHLEY WITH ESCARGOT
Just build the Ashley server only for msn 1-4 as you said.It would be great 
and who knows maybe in the feature the escargot server will repair the 1-4 msn clients 
BTW The vote says 71% for escargot and 30% for Ashley