yeah, we had xmlhttp in production in early 2001...  but one could argue that combinations of java/javascript could be used to do all kinds of server fed, no refresh roundtrips even back in the mid 90s.  etc etc.  The concept of client side script+objects in a loaded webpage communicating with the server, it's not really something that bears much credit for being novel really.  70s/80s BBS's had as much.  the widespread adoption, ie many of us using it as part of the standard feature base of web sites/applications, that's the greater trend that making it the swell thing it is.

m.