That's still pretty sketchy grounds for age discrimination, unless there is more to the story that isn't making it into the tech press.
How about this one: About 2005, shortly after completing my Ph.D., I interviewed with th' Goog', including an on-site in Dublin (they said they had just started doing on-site interviews outside of Mountain View); the next day I received email from the recruiter in Dublin saying, "looks like we're coming to a successful conclusion", and a few days later received their standard thanks-but-no-thanks letter. I was unable to get more information from them. Clearly, I was denied by the mother ship, but one of the few solid reasons I could come up with was that I was 37 at the time.
For those unfamiliar with the interview process at Google, you meet with several people over the course of a day.
What's more likely is that you had some positive scores and feedback from several interviewers initially. Then, the remaining feedback from the other interviewers came in a little later and was below the mark. Interviewers have focus areas typically, so it's not uncommon to see candidates do very well in one area (e.g. culture fit) and poorly in another (e.g. technical ability).
The recruiter shouldn't have lead you on like that. They should know that until all the scores and feedback is in, nothing is final. That said, it is their job to keep candidates engaged. So, perhaps this one was a little over zealous?
How about this one: About 2005, shortly after completing my Ph.D., I interviewed with th' Goog', including an on-site in Dublin (they said they had just started doing on-site interviews outside of Mountain View); the next day I received email from the recruiter in Dublin saying, "looks like we're coming to a successful conclusion", and a few days later received their standard thanks-but-no-thanks letter. I was unable to get more information from them. Clearly, I was denied by the mother ship, but one of the few solid reasons I could come up with was that I was 37 at the time.