what provider are you using for your email?
we've had many instances where peoples' providers mark the verification email as spam, or just never let it go through to begin with.
I suggest using a gmail account personally.
Also, your old account should still be active in some way shape or form. You're more than welcome to use it if you can remember the info for it. if you only remember the email you used, then you could use the retrieve password ability on the main page, assuming you still have that old email ID as well.
Although, if its been quite some time since you last logged in, the game has changed quite a bit, so a new account with anew character will let you go through the tutorial and many benefits like that, that the old account would not have.