You have the correct information.

chaneytexas is right on the button with his/her advice. Your PNR is recycled to another itinerary (think about it - only six letters, only 16 in the alphabet,) but your ticket number will never recycle (AA tickets begin with 001-.)

For an award ticket, you can re-book the itinerary later, or re-deposit (for a fee.)

If your ticket is paid NR, you can see the entire conditions for refundability at www.refunds.aa.com (just don't complete the process for a refund) and you have one year to use the value (less service fees) toward another ticket. Your new ticket may be required to have similar limitations to the original (e.g. refundability) as I recall - they don't want us folding a NR into a refundable and beating the system.