The main difference I've seen is that my wife actually found character creation in
4E to be fun. She liked to make characters in AD&D, but character creation in 3.X was like pulling teeth for her, to the point where she pretty much hated having anything to do with the character sheet.
All of which means she couldn't really participate in the main goal of 3.X: gathering together the right combination of race, classes, skills and feats to make an overpowering specialized lump of synchronized powers. With
4E she can ignore the whole munchkin power gamer element of 3.X and get right into roleplaying.
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