Here is what I know on the subject. AA divides flight by direction -- North, South, East and West. Not all flights in all direction are created equal. The meal times listed by JDiver (very nice to hear from you again) may still apply but they are not applied to all flights equally. AA has more west bound flights that fly during traditional meal windows than in any other direction. Post 9/11, it was determined that, due to budgetary constraints, it wasn't possible to provide standard breakfast/lunch/dinner meals on all flights. As such, the west bound flights saw the biggest cuts. I have no insight into the determining factors that led to specific flights as being coded for standard meals and which flights were coded for brunch/snack. An educated guess would assume routes that had significant paid F would have been the least likely to be cut.
I learned of this information over a year ago. AA might have made some changes for 2008 to increase the number of flights that are catered with standard meals. I don't know what is in store for 2009, but AA is studying the soft product of their international competitors and does have intentions to expand food & bev. To what extent, I do not know.
Anyway, back to the point of this thread. When booking flights, I don't think one should assume a meal based on traditional meal windows. It is always best to check aa.com at the very least. In my experience, aa.com was incorrect only once. An HNL-LAX flight was coded as lunch, but it in fact was dinner.