This week Microsoft announced that their Virtual Earth product versions 3, 4 & 5 will be retired.
As part of our planned deprecation schedule for older versions of Virtual Earth, we will be permanently retiring Virtual Earth version 3, version 4, and version 5 in the coming months. If you are currently using one of these versions, please read this notification and the end-of-life schedule that applies to the version(s) of Virtual Earth you are using. Please note, this Virtual Earth version end-of-life plan only applies to Virtual Earth and does not affect the MapPoint Web Service.
Please note, this does NOT affect the Microsoft Map Point 4.5 Geocoding class that I wrote. This class will continue to do its job. :)
Related: Google Maps Geocoding Class