Well, your situation is similar to another user's situation where they assumed that Spybot-Search&Destroy was interfering with such and such and odd things began occurring after installing.
No, that is not the case. Spybot will not interfere with the user's activities, only stamping down malware.
Have you tried uninstalling AIM and reinstalling it? What version of AIM are you currently using, and do you recall where you downloaded it?