Are 3 to 4 year old iMac's regarded as "vintage"?

I have an iMac 24" that is between 3 and 4 years old, and very happy with it until one day found that it would show nothing
on the screen. The power button went on and off ok, but that was it.
I took the iMac into the Apple Service Center here in Phuket, Thailand, and after a couple of days
they came back to me and said that it needed a new VDU card.... BUT as it was a "vintage" (their word)
computer this part may be difficult to get in Thailand!
Now after about 10 days they are telling me that they are having a problem getting the part here in Thailand, because Apple
do not support these "older models"!!!!
Myself and my family are quite large Mac users, and own a couple of Macbook Pros, three iPads and two iPhones all
of which were associated with the 24 iMac desktop...... that now dosen't work.
Can someone please tell me that this is not true?
Surely Apple must support all of their products, both past and present?
Any help or advice would be appreciated.

I have used Powerbook Medic for parts: http://www.powerbookmedic.com/128MB-Video-Card-for-24-iMac-p-17962.html#
Do not simply buy that one... it may be the right part for your iMac but you must be absolutely certain the part number is precisely correct. If its firmware is incompatible for instance, it won't work.
PowerBook Medic has a serial number search utility that you could use to verify it is the correct part. As you can see it is not cheap.
If you had to replace it yourself I recommend using iFixit's detailed guides. Taking an iMac apart is not easy and reassembling it is even worse.
I think your best course of action is with the service shop. A replacement should still be available from Apple.

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