AOLserver 3.4.2 does not have the OpenACS internationalization
patches, 3.3+ad13 and 4.0 do. I don't recall exactly, but this may
have something to do with your character set problems.
What character set your PostgreSQL database using? What character set
is your "HTMLArea" editor using?
Depending on your answers to the above, getting all your content
straightened out may well be highly non-trivial. But, I'm no expert
there and don't have a good list of links. Some people here
definitely have more in depth experience in this...